But if your child is interested in a topic before the usual age or even years later, that's when her learning will be most effective. In the process, they picked up the ability to read, to figure, and learned a little bit about a great many subjects. As they've grown older, they've taken over more of the process and begun to focus on more specific topics of interest. But through it all, they've always thought of learning as fun, even when it's been a lot of work for them. If your child is interested in college, you need to make sure they know what's required.
Costs can vary enormously, depending on the approach to homeschooling.
Others rely heavily on libraries, sometimes only purchasing materials after they've discovered what's really worth the expense for their family. Give it up. A schedule is a tool for making your life run more smoothly or efficiently. If keeping to a schedule causes more problems than it solves, maybe you need a more flexible schedule or even a more flexible approach to learning. It's very common for homeschooling families to attempt to reproduce school schedules when they first start out and then discover that such a highly structured approach is overkill for a family.