You might consider scanning at 16bit, medium resolution but using the scanner software to auto process and downrez to a jpeg. For example, have the jpeg output suitable for making a 4x6 print or displaying on a projector or TV -- something like 800x1200 pixels. In that way, you could scan them all for posterity, make prints and view onscreen - or make a slideshow. This would speed up the process and also reduce storage requirements.
After this first scan, you could view and flag the slides for which you want to make enlargements and rescan those later.
I use Vuescan software. Vuescan will scan at reduced resolutions, auto crop, auto adjust and then save as a jpeg. I'm sure other scanning software packages must do the same.
Alternatively, you could scan at the highest resolution, 16bit, save the full size file (about 130MB tif), process a batch at night with a Photoshop action that would downsize to a more manageable size, keep the downsized jpegs and discard the large originals (or burn to a DVD) except for the ones you wish to work up for enlargements. This would be quite a bit more work but would give you a bit more control over the final (downsized) file and save having to rescan the best slides.
In your situation, I'm pretty sure that I'd use Vuescan to generate a mid-sized jpeg image of all slides and rescan, then hand work the better slides.