Already changing it up

Three days into this chaos and I already feel the need to change some things.  I've got two school age children (Rachel and Ford) who I have certain topics and units that I'd like to follow for the year.  Then there's Ruby, the preschooler, who is doing great to get some letters, numbers, tactile activities and read-alouds daily.  Plus, we throw in a dose of crazy, just for fun, with Baxter, the seven month old.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard to accomplish everything every day.  For my own sanity, I've been trying to come up with ways to get to Science and Social Studies for the big kids at a time when Ruby and Baxter don't need a lot from me, like nap time.  Unfortunately, that means I lose my "planning" time so I have to do more work at night (on top of dishes and laundry!).  Well, using nap time is great for Rachel who will rest and read for about 30 minutes and then re-focus.  However , it's not going so well for Ford...he can't seem to handle just resting and then re-focusing.  If he takes a nap, he's up all night.  If I can get him to finish all of his work before nap time, he can just rest and then get up and play.  It's a mess.  Lately, Ruby's been having trouble going to sleep at night and I think it's because she's napping too long.  So, next week I'm going to try just getting through with all school work (except maybe Rachel's) before nap time.  Then, letting Ruby and Ford rest for just a little while so that I can get Baxter to sleep.  If everybody can handle that, then we can just start bed time a little earlier and try to play harder to keep everyone from getting too cranky!  Of course this could all change again after soccer and ballet start up next week but one day we'll get our groove... Oh, yeah, and I've decided to alternate units of Science and Social Studies instead of keeping them both going all year long...Now if I can just convince Baxter to sleep through the night...