I started at the get-go like Nazsmom, so I kinda sidled into homeschooling with a 4-year-old... and never looked back. Nineteen years later I'm now done: my youngest went off to 10th grade at a real school this past fall.
When people ask my kids what they liked or didn't like about homeschooling, they have a hard time answering. To them it's like asking "What did you like most about growing up in your family?" ... because homeschooling was inseparable from the only life they knew. It was just part of how we rolled as a family. They talk with great fondness about the quirky interests they pursued, the weird games they played, the great swaths of unstructured time they had to just be themselves. And they have all -- at least so far -- found things they love doing, and are excelling, so I think it was a success, and they recall it in positive terms. (They're now 14 through 23.)
I guess what I want to say to you is that most of the what-ifs that parents new to homeschooling worry about with respect to their child's education are really only risks or potential problems in a school setting.
"What if I forget to teach her something she needs to know?" When you discover the gap you will likely still be actively involved in her life, and you can help her learn whatever it is. There's nothing about being 14 that makes it the only time you can learn what a thesis statement is, or how scientific notation works. If a gap reveals itself, you address it then. And if she's already an adult and living on her own, she will have the tools necessary to find resources and address the omission, all the more so because as a former homeschooler she had plenty of experience actively shaping and taking responsibility for her own learning.
"What if she doesn't learn the way I teach?" Well, then you try teaching another way, and another way after that. You find another curriculum. You try using projects or real-life experiences as hooks to make the learning meaningful. You try an online course, or a tutor, or some videos on the internet, or a software suite, or an audiobook or a literary or film-based pathway. You ask her what she thinks would work, and you try that. You leverage what you have learned over the months and years of watching her learning successes. You are not a school; you are not stuck with a my-way-or-the-highway approach.
"What if she falls behind in a subject or skill?" Again, this is only a problem in school where the curriculum moves relentlessly forward and those who are behind are dragged along to the next stage without the foundation needed to support it and may never catch up, and where next year's teachers will not have a clue about lingering issues. In homeschooling the curriculum won't leave her behind if she needs longer. She can linger at a troublesome level until she has full mastery, and then move ahead confidently on the strength of that solid foundation.
Yes kids fail and fall through the cracks in school. But that is astronomically less common in homeschooling because it has a bunch of built-in fail-safes: the continuity and intimacy of the parent-child relationship, infinite amounts of flexibility, and the ability to provide an incredibly individualized approach based on your child's input. It'll be fine. You'll find your way. We all do. Nurture your sense of humour, your sense of humility and your sense of wonder. Those are the most important things.
And yeah, come on over to the unschooling forum. We keep an active thread going there and it's a supportive group. You don't even have to be an unschooler.
Miranda