I have only used SL though I've scoped on MFW several times. I've decided to stick with SL largely for just the reason you've mentioned. I don't have to worry about rounding up books. If I don't have everything ready to go, chances are it won't get done. I need things open and go prep free. You sound a bit like me on that :). Core A is really nice, though I can't comment on the LA and likely, neither can anyone else right now because SL just did an LA revision. :)

Hmm, for those cores I'd likely just buy one in the middle somewhere and combine your children. The cores ARE worth the money because they include SO. MANY. BOOKS. If you had to buy the books it would cost just as much anyway (I love to find the cores used, then it is a HUGE value). Those core 3/4 books are awesome though - we have a lot of them in our collection for littles. Again, not sure how old your littles are, but maybe do core 4/5 - youngers can listen in, and olders will love the books just as much :).

Buy pdfs that are MEANT to be duplicated/printed within a family. That way you can just load them directly. Critical Thinking Company - many of these titles can be photocopied but not all. Joy of Handwriting - we're doing cursive on the iPad from the PDF Math Mammoth - get the PDFs. Any PDF is generally meant to be reproduced, some physical workbooks CAN be copied, but check each book individually on the inside of the copyright page. Many workbooks are meant to be consumable - like MUS etc.

I've tried repeatedly to make Astronomy go for elementary, and I just can't. For some reason we find it boring. I don't know what it is - I thought we'd love it.

I use PDF Expert with no problems so far :).

The LA is new/revised this year, so I'm not sure what it is like now. I do agree with boscopup that the previous LA has had VERY ambitious writing requirements that weren't appropriate for my children at the suggested levels, so I haven't used it with my children.

They are workbooks you can mark on, and a bit spendy. And I agree - not the best workbooks in the world, you can't zoom in etc. We prefer to just use PDFExpert and our own pdfs. Yup.

I don't have LOE at all, AAS has worked AWESOME for us. Like your child, my daughter did an OG style phonics program - worked great, but couldn't spell....at all! AAS to the rescue! We also use it for dictation (I know, I know the sentences are pretty easy, but hey, I double up wherever I can!) It's open and go, which is huge for me...HUGE. If it isn't open and go it doesn't get done around here :O!

It's nice. My 9-yo says it's her favorite geography app. It is a HUGE download. I didn't find some of the demographics too useful - like the temperature for the country is shown as an average I think - Canada (where I'm from) has a temperature of 2-10 erm. We go from -40C to +40C and I don't think 2-10 is really a great representation of what it's like to live here! Apart from that it is a beautiful app, highly interactive, good for free-form exploration rather than research.

I'm so glad that it was available when I ordered my big batch of AAR Level 1 order! It looks AWESOME.

Oh my goodness! i'm due with #5 too - November 2nd! Our children are actually so close to each other in age! Mine will be 9, 6, 3, 1 in another week (one has a birthday Tuesday). The toddlers are crazy, BUT my 3-yo is actually the biggest troublemaker!

We always have a new baby around here it seems like! I actually find that I get a LOT of SL done with a newborn. Since I'm spending so much time nursing I just grab the books, sit in the chair and read to the kids. Keeps them out of trouble too :D! Stuff I need to direct them towards and get set up for them erm, doesn't get done so much, but lit-based stuff does, I just read and drop the extensions :).

Thanks for the suggestions! I was actually looking at GSWL...:)

Well, I don't know how AOP says you are supposed to use these, but they LOOK phonetically progressive to me. There are 3 sets that increase in difficulty. Here is the first set, but it links to the next two sets as well. These are really the only Bible story-based phonetically progressive readers I've ever seen. I don't own them though, so if others have, please chime in!

AAS/AAR have great illustrations (though not colorful) they are subdued, line drawings, professional quality - very nice. No controversial content at all - sweet straight forward stories in their readers. But the readers are part of AAR not AAS per say (though they do coordinate as well.

That is exactly what happened with us Terabith. My DD (7 at the time) had been through so many story Bibles and she was starting to get mad with the ones that didn't include all of the details, so she asked for the full Bible. And I gave it to her - NIrV to make it easier to read. She's in Exodus now, narrates to me daily, and we go over any of the tricky bits together after she mentions them to me. Parents have been sharing God's word directly with their children for thousands of years (except for the Song of Songs maybe), so I'm good with it :).

Yep, just get going :). You might find you spend 1 week or 2 weeks/step - we normally spend 1 week or so when we're on the ball. It's scripted so just open it up and get started, it will make sense and you'll find your groove!

Okay, I feel like an AAS slacker. I've gone through 1 level/year - but we always end up taking a lot of unplanned breaks - seems like we have a new baby/are moving every year! We started in 2nd and did level 1, just finishing up level 2 for 3rd! It is a totally awesome program though :).

I'm with Merry. Most Bibles, even those for early readers like the NIrV (even storybooks like the Beginner's Bible) use words from all over the spectrum as far as phonetic organization goes. I was pretty much unable to find phonetically regular Bible-based materials. Oh, hmm, I did see some readers at Christianbook, but they weren't scripture, just stories - I think they are printed by AoP? Pick a good phonics program that teaches rules followed by some sort of reader or story to practice that new rule/phonogram. Once independent reading is established then you can start having Bible as a daily reading time.

Textbooks. Workbooks. Textbooks. We prefer real books for content subjects, but we did use A Handbook for Reading and their readers to teach my oldest to read :). Those are great!

Level 1 does have some important concepts in it, you could start there and go more quickly with your oldest, then start your youngest a little bit later. We waited to start level 1 until reading was fairly well established, so no rush there :).

Well, I do wish we had them in an app because it can be a bit tricker for my DD to remember all the different types. We do it orally and with some drawing on the words - Sound Literacy lets you draw right in the app, so we split up syllables and tag them with the pen. I heard they wouldn't have the app out until summer :). BTW, if you are starting with level 1 you don't need to worry about syllable tags - they don't come in until level 2.

Yes you can use it instead of the tiles, that's what we do! It just doesn't include syllable tags :).

Have fun!!! We just bought the next level up of AAR a couple of days ago ourselves!

You can also get JUST the Illuminations lit guides if you want them (from what I understand).