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I think one thing that I'm struggling with is that I don't know what caliber of colleges are reasonable reach/match/safeties for them, and I feel like I can't know until I get ACT or SAT scores back. Their GPA's are 4.1 and 4.2 weighted (our school doesn't give unweighted). S is just below top 10% and D is within 10%. But are they taking the very possibly hardest curriculum? No - S is humanities oriented and D is math / science oriented and they take honors / AP in those areas but not in others (with my permission / blessing). Plus - they just are normal hs kids with normal hs activities and clubs and interests -- they aren't the Intel-winning, Olympic-finalist, started-my-own-business-and-cured-cancer kids I see on CC that scare me out of thinking that it's even a possibility to go after the top schools. I guess I'm also just anxious for those scores just to get a benchmark as to where we're heading, could head, or should head.
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I'm not sure test scores are the best thing to clarify where you should be looking for schools. If you school has Naviance, I'd recommend looking at where the student with similar profiles have been matriculating to in recent years. I think that will give you a better range of likely outcomes (no use looking too high or too low) for your kids.
I still think for right now it is more important to find out what type of school environment they like. You don't have to be precise on finding a set of reaches, matches, and safeties right now. Most importantly, you want to know how they react to LACs vs State Flagships; Urban vs Suburban vs Rural; etc.
Mind you, these preferences may evolve over time as you see more and more schools. It is kind of like finding that special someone. How would they know what characteristics about a person or a school are most important until they spend some time with a variety. Yeah, some people truly know up front what they want, but often that can change as they mature. However, I can't think of why more knowledge would be worse, unless you try to see 100 schools in 30 days.