The first thing I want to say about All About Homophones is how impressed I am with the layout. The book is downright charming: the graphics are fresh and whimsical, but done in gray scale so you don’t have to worry about using expensive color ink if you purchase in ebook format and print it yourself. (View sample pages here.)

To avoid any confusion:

What is a homophone?

Homo means same and phone means sound, so the word homophone literally means same sound. Homophones are two or more words that sound alike but that are spelled differently and have different meanings. Sets of homophones include billed and build, peace and piece, and sew, so, and sow.

[Did you ever think about the fact that regional pronunciations affect whether or not words are homophones? “For example, weather and whether are pronounced the same in certain parts of America, but in other regions the wh in whether has retained a distinct /hw/ sound. The words acts and ax sound alike to most of us, but some people pronounce the t in acts.” Interesting, huh?]

All About Homophones utilizes multiple activities to engage and teach your children about homophones: graphic organizers, worksheets, crossword puzzles, card games, and more. The worksheets are divided into sections by grade level for grades one through eight. We printed the ebook and then I separated the worksheets; hole-punched them; and put them into my first, third, sixth, and eighth graders’ binders.

My children really enjoy this book and they’re learning from it, too; it’s a real vocabulary-builder. When my sixth grade daughter and I worked on the “Fair & Fare” worksheet, I counted seven separate meanings for those words that were covered. Seven!

The fun activities at the bottom of the worksheets offer additional opportunities for the study of our language. When my nine-year-old daughter made up “My brother blew a big bubble by the boys at the beach” for her “Silly Sentences!” activity, we covered alliteration, penmanship, and sentence structure, too.

Here’s a sample worksheet:

I give All About Homophones a solid two thumbs up. I would recommend purchasing the print book if you only have one child who will use the program, or the ebook for multiple children.

Check out the free online Homophone Machine– it’s a hoot! For example, I entered “Please come to my house for tea” and got “Pleas come two my house four tee.”

HOT DEALS!

• The price of the All About Homophones ebook was just lowered: $29.95 for the printed book and $27.95 for the e-book.
• To celebrate the launch of All About Homophones, you can get $10 off any order at www.all-about-homophones.com! To receive the discount, enter “FUN” in the customer code box during checkout. The coupon code is good for one week, through February 2, 2009. Using this code, you can get your own copy of All About Homophones for $17.95 (e-book version) or $19.95 (print version) through next Monday.
• Place a group order and save even more: cases of 20 books sell at a 40% discount!