Faith Schooling vs Alpha Omega for K–5 reading and math

Which one fits: the short answer

Alpha Omega publishes Horizons spiral workbooks for PreK–8, LIFEPAC worktexts for K–12, and Monarch online from Grade 3. Faith Schooling uses one K–5 household membership for complete reading and language arts, phonics, cursive, math, Bible, and discipleship, parent-taught from scripts and print-first.

For the elementary years the practical comparison is Horizons in print against Faith Schooling in print, because Monarch does not exist below Grade 3. The two differences that decide it are usually how much explicit Christian content sits inside the early lessons, and whether you are buying one boxed grade at a time or one household license.

What each one is, and who does the teaching

Horizons Phonics and Reading runs K–3 in colorful spiral workbooks with companion readers, 160 lessons per level, on a spiral review design. Reviewers describe it as boxed and open-and-go at roughly twenty to thirty minutes, teacher-led, with a whiteboard expected. Horizons grade sets cover math, phonics and reading, spelling, penmanship and health; Bible, history and science are bought separately.

Monarch changes the teaching entirely from Grade 3: the platform carries the course and largely grades the work. For Kindergarten through Grade 2 that option is not on the table at all, so the parent teaches, and the comparison stays print against print.

Faith Schooling is parent-taught at every grade, with no automated grading and no online course platform. A complete reading lesson is scripted at 45 to 55 minutes; cursive is 10 to 15 minutes. Alpha Omega's phonics line stops after Grade 3, while the Faith Schooling reading sequence runs the full K–5 span in six full-year student textbooks.

Side by side

Alpha Omega facts were observed on the publisher's own site in August 2026. Three product lines with different grade spans make this the easiest comparison in the set to misread, so check which line a price belongs to before you use it.

What each costs

Observed on 26 August 2026: a Horizons complete grade set at $375.25 for Kindergarten and $424.50 for Grade 1, priced per student. Boldly Educated's own review table put the phonics-only per-level sets in the region of $156 to $228 — their figure, not a catalog pull we verified. Monarch is a separate subscription and starts at Grade 3.

All Access is one price for the household: $39 a month, cancel anytime, covering every K–5 program and the whole practice library however many children you teach. The cost you take on instead is printing — a Horizons set arrives bound, and Faith Schooling arrives as files.

Faith in the lesson, or faith around it

This is the sharpest difference in the comparison, and the source for it is a friendly one. Cathy Duffy's review of Horizons Phonics and Reading notes almost no explicit Christian content in the K–2 levels, with the emphasis on character, and some religious stories appearing at Grade 3. Alpha Omega is a Christian publisher and its Bible curriculum is real, but it is a separate purchase from the phonics line.

Faith Schooling puts Scripture in the academic work itself. The reading week is organized around one phonics skill and one story from Scripture or history, with a virtue and a memory verse attached, and the verse is quoted exactly from the New King James Version rather than paraphrased. Separate Bible teaching — Scripture memory, study guides, church history and family printables — sits in the Apostolic Academy, free to anyone who wants it.

Pacing, placement and screens

Alpha Omega deserves clear credit on placement: free LIFEPAC placement tests for Grades 1 through 12 and Horizons math readiness evaluations are more than most publishers offer, and they let you buy the right level rather than the birthday level. Horizons then moves on a 160-lesson spiral, and reviewers note that finishing all 160 in one year is genuinely hard.

Faith Schooling measures rather than counts. Daily exit tickets, weekly mastery checks with parallel forms, timed drills with personal-best tracking and a skill ledger decide when a child advances. On screens, the print lines and Faith Schooling are comparable; Monarch is the screen-heavy option in this comparison, and it does not apply below Grade 3.

Why families choose Faith Schooling

Faith Schooling keeps K–5 instruction parent-led, print-first, mastery-paced, and rooted in openly stated Apostolic conviction.

• One household membership covers every K–5 grade and every child.
• Scripted guides show parents exactly how to teach each reading lesson.
• HARVEST gives free adaptive reading placement and a printable starting-point report.
• Complete reading and language arts includes structured phonics, cursive, weekly lesson sets, and decodable readers.
• Building Number Sense provides all six K–5 student texts, coordinated K–2 workbooks and guides, and extensive skill practice.
• The free Apostolic Academy supports Scripture memory, Bible study, church history, and discipleship.

Faith Schooling at a glance

Faith Schooling focuses on a deep Kindergarten through Grade 5 foundation in reading, phonics, cursive, math, Bible, and discipleship. Families select complementary subjects around it and keep their own homeschool records.

Student work is delivered digitally for printing at home, with browser tools serving placement, teaching guides, planning, and games. The complete K–5 math student-text sequence is supported by coordinated K–2 workbooks and guides and the Faith Thinkers Math Practice Library.

How to decide this week

Do these in order; none of them costs anything, and the first question rules out one of the two publishers for most families.

1. Run HARVEST and print the report so your child starts from a demonstrated reading skill.
2. Read a Faith Schooling teaching guide in full and inspect the real student pages.
3. Review the curriculum map and the Bible-centered weekly structure.
4. Build your chosen complementary subjects around the Faith Schooling K–5 foundation.

HARVEST reading placement The K–5 curriculum map