Scheduling makes life so much easier for our family.  We have been blessed from the advice found in the book, Managers of Their Homes by Steven and Teri Maxwell.  See my Beacon Book Review for it, I highly recommend the book. 

We make schedules and plans for all aspects of our life, but especially to help our homeschool function smoothly.  Below you can find some suggestions and samples as to how we go about this. 

We schedule our year with 3 terms (12 weeks each).  The terms run from September to November, January to March, and April to June, with December, July and August off.  During the "months off" we spend time on extra learning activities such as doing more handicrafts, gardening, nature walks, Christmas school (in December), and so on.

I have found wonderful planning sheets to use at Donna Young's Homeschool Printables & Resources

In the spring of each year I spend time making decisions as to what subjects will be studied the following year, and what curriculum we will use to accomplish our goals.  I get input from my children and let them have a part in setting their own learning goals.  Then I go about purchasing and gathering curriculum at the beginning of the summer.  Our new school year begins in September.

To help myself keep organized and be able to plan and schedule all I need to do (there is a lot to balance when you are a homeschool mom), I use a FranklinCovey Planner.  This tool is extremely helpful to me and it allows me to make weekly and daily adjustments to our schedule as needed.  
http://www.franklincovey.com/