Faith Schooling vs Master Books for K–5 reading and math

Which one fits: the short answer

Master Books publishes printed courses for ages 3–5 through ages 17–18 across math, language arts, history, science, Bible and apologetics, sold as single books or four-subject grade sets and shipped to your door. Faith Schooling is one household membership covering Kindergarten through Grade 5 reading, phonics, cursive, math and discipleship, taught by the parent and printed at home.

Both hold that Scripture is true where it touches history and science, so creation and biblical history are not where they part. In the academic subjects the fork is scope and shape. Master Books carries a family through the high-school years in every subject with short, gentle, story-led lessons; Faith Schooling goes deep in K–5 reading and math with explicit instruction and mastery gates, and publishes no science or history at all.

The same view of Scripture as history

Master Books states its position plainly. Its statement of faith says the sixty-six books of the Bible are "divinely inspired and inerrant throughout" and that their authority "is not limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes but includes its assertions in such fields as history and science." On origins it says the Genesis account "is a simple but factual presentation of actual events and therefore provides a reliable framework for scientific research."

Faith Schooling holds the same view of Scripture as true history, so nothing about creation or the history in Genesis has to be relearned when a family moves between the two. That is not agreement on every doctrine. Faith Schooling is Apostolic (Oneness Pentecostal), and its free Academy studies teach the oneness of God and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ; a Bible course from any other publisher should be read against your own church's teaching before you assign it, and the six checks in our Oneness Pentecostal curriculum guide are written for that. On the question families ask most — who owns whom — Master Books' own company timeline records that New Leaf Press purchased Master Books in February 1996, and that later the same year it "becomes the primary publisher of many Answers in Genesis resources." That is a publishing relationship as their own site describes it, and it explains why the two names appear together so often.

Side by side

Every Master Books fact below was read on masterbooks.com on 4 September 2026. Products and prices change without notice. Build your own cart before you decide; no table, ours included, is a substitute for their checkout page.

Story-led or explicit instruction: the real fork

This is the difference that decides most families, and neither answer is the wrong one. Master Books teaches through narrative. Math Lessons for a Living Education follows two children, Charlie and Charlotte, and blends "stories, copy-work, oral narration, and hands-on experience to bring concepts to life"; Language Lessons 3 builds grammar out of picture study, psalms, poems and Scripture copywork. The Master Books Method describes "shorter lessons, 'Grab and Go' design, and adaptable pacing," and says the approach "fosters a sense of dignity by focusing on skill level instead of grade level."

Faith Schooling teaches the code directly, then checks whether the child has it. A reading week turns on a single phonics skill, with a Bible hero, a virtue and a verse beside it, and it carries drill sheets, daily writing pages, exit tickets and an end-of-quarter check. Advancement is gated on evidence, not on the calendar.

That shows up in the clock. Master Books is deliberately short — fifteen to thirty minutes for Grade 3 math, twenty to thirty for Grade 3 language arts, so that lessons "honor your child's brain development, muscle stamina, attention span." A Faith Schooling reading lesson runs 45 to 55 minutes, because instruction, connected reading, writing and a check happen in one sitting. For a parent teaching four children that alone may decide it; where a long sitting is not realistic, the weekly-lesson format splits the same sequence into five shorter days.

What it costs, and what you own

Master Books prices per book. On 4 September 2026 their Grade 3 product pages read: Math Lessons for a Living Education Level 3 at $39.19 paperback, $34.29 as an eBook; Language Lessons for a Living Education 3 at a $66.98 list price with a $53.58 special price for the physical set, $41.59 for the paperback alone, or $36.39 as an eBook. The four-subject grade sets list every component, but those pages did not render a set price in the text we could read, so price the set in your own cart.

What you get for that is ownership, and what you buy again is the consumable half: the workbooks are full color, perforated and three-hole punched, so a second child needs his own copy of the pages he writes on.

Faith Schooling is $39 a month, cancel anytime, for one household and every K–5 child. Canceling stops the next renewal and you keep access to the end of the term you have paid for. Nothing ships and nothing stays yours once you leave, and the paper and toner bill is real. What it buys is that a second or third child costs only paper, never another book.

Where Master Books is the better choice

There are families for whom Master Books is plainly the right answer, and it would be dishonest to bury them.

• You want one publisher for all the years. Their bands run ages 3–5 to ages 17–18, and their placement page lists high-school titles such as Jensen's High School Language Arts and Elementary Algebra. Faith Schooling stops at Grade 5; a family with a seventh grader is not served here.
• You need science and history. Faith Schooling publishes neither. The Master Books Grade 3 set includes Adventures on Planet Earth for science and America's Story for history, taught from a young-earth creation position, and that is why many families come to them.
• You do not want to print. Master Books ships finished, bound, full-color books. Faith Schooling hands you a PDF and a printer, and in some households that is a daily irritation rather than a saving.
• You want short lessons. Fifteen to thirty minutes a subject is a real advantage with a young child, a large family, or a child whose stamina is still building.
• You prefer narrative and narration to worksheets and checks. That is a legitimate philosophy of education, deliberately executed — their own summary of the design is "Open & Go, Effective, Life-Proof."
• You want to own what you buy. Books on the shelf, no recurring charge, something to pass to the next child: for some families that is simply the better arrangement.
• You want Bible as a graded subject. Master Books builds Bible and apologetics into its sets; Faith Schooling's discipleship sits outside the graded day, in the free Apostolic Academy.

Where Faith Schooling fits

Faith Schooling concentrates everything on Kindergarten through Grade 5, and that narrowness is the point: six full-year reading textbooks totalling 8,952 student pages with 3,530 pages of teaching guides, the same sequence as 210 weekly lesson sets, 96 phonics workbooks arranged by pattern rather than grade, 300 original decodable readers, ten cursive workbooks, a complete K–5 math student-text sequence with coordinated workbooks and guides through Grade 2, and thousands of printable practice worksheets underneath it.

A great deal of it is open before you are asked for anything: HARVEST placement, starter paths in the learning games, the Copywork Creator and Bible Verse Card Maker, the first three sheets in every practice set, complete teaching guides and first workbooks, and the entire Apostolic Academy — Scripture memory, The Hidden Word, church history, study guides and family printables — free to everyone. Nothing about either catalog makes it awkward to run the two side by side.

How to decide this week

Four steps, and the first two usually settle it. None of them costs anything.

1. Write down the subjects you actually need this year. If science and history are on the list, Master Books answers a question Faith Schooling does not.
2. Read a complete Faith Schooling teaching guide and the first workbook of a phonics level, then read a Master Books sample. You are comparing two philosophies, not two catalogs.
3. Run both placements. Master Books publishes free placement tests for its language arts and math courses; HARVEST is free and adaptive in the browser. Either way you start from a skill, not a birthday.
4. Count your children and count your printer. One household membership across three children reads very differently from three sets of consumable workbooks — and so does the reverse, if printing is not something you will keep up.

HARVEST reading placement The K–5 curriculum map