Teacher-approved fun!

Pat. at Here and There has done it again. As a former teacher with 30+ years of experience, she took one look at You’ve Been Sentenced! and said, “I wish I were back in school teaching. It would have been a great tool in my eighth-grade classes!”

You can also WIN a copy of You’ve been Sentenced! by visiting Here and There at http://hereandthere.us/index.php/2009/holiday-gift-guide-youve-been-sentenced-game-system/ There are also extra ways to win, so please read through to the bottom of her instructions.

A short excerpt of her review follows below.

“The latest in the evolution of games, “You’ve been Sentenced!” is the first game in history to really turn making sentences into a very funny, playable, and challenging game. Using a unique word deck of pentagon shaped cards containing conjugations of funny words, famous names from throughout history, familiar places, and wild cards, players have to make grammatically correct and justifiable sentences. The real fun begins when players have to read their sentences out loud and explain what they mean to the rest of players. They form the jury and vote thumbs up or down on whether the sentence and justification stand and the points are scored. 540 cards with over 2,500 words insure billions of possible sentences so the game is never repetitive and has unlimited re-play value.

Multiple other methods of play are available on our website that turn “You’ve been Sentenced!” into not just a game, but a full game system! We even have a lesson plan to turn “You’ve Been Sentenced!” into a classroom teaching tool. This game makes learning grammar and sentence construction fun and easy.”

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

NCTE Trade Show, Philadelphia

Well there is no question that the NCTE show is our best show every year! Teachers and students truly love You’ve been Sentenced! and no less than 50 times did teachers come up and absolutely praise the game up one side and down the other. Every time a teacher would come by to say thank you for creating the game other teachers would hear the compliments and purchase a copy.

Sales were less than last year as many teachers are struggling in this economy, too, but we still managed to sell enough to more than pay for the show and hand out 1,000 of pieces of literature on the games and Success Won’t Wait. The biggest sellers this year were the Add-on-Decks, as every teacher that had bought the game in years past were now adding on to their sets!

Don McNeill is a quintessential entrepreneur, the inventor of the multi-award winning language game You’ve been Sentenced! and the CEO of McNeill Designs.

The Fabulous Finds Holiday Gift Guide, 2009

The Fabulous Finds  is written by one truly fabulous mom! Heather is now a “thirty something” stay-at-home mom with three amazing kids. But her past experiences have clearly prepared her for the “finding the good life” as the creator of three different children’s clothing lines, owner of two shops, work as a buyer, and owner of a handbag company!

We were honored that Heather chose to include You’ve been Sentenced! in her lineup for her Holiday Gift Gide for Kids and Babies 2009. To read about all of Heather’s picks – from Hexbugnano, to Ficklets, to EyeCanArt – visit  The Holiday Gift Guide.

The Fabulous Finds

November 20, 2009

 You’ve been Sentenced By: McNeill Designs.. Love this.. Great for older kids to adult. This card game takes imagination and the more creative you are the more points you earn… Make crazy fun sentences… sure to please. The more cards to use to build your sentence the better chance you have of winning the game… So much fun. Plus it’s a great tool for kids to use their noggin… Offers different category sets sold separately.

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

Here and There Holiday Gift Guide

Every once and a while, we run across a blogger who is so unique, so special, we ‘re just thrilled to work with them. Pat. (yes, there actually  is a period after her name!) is absolutely one of those bloggers. This self professed bargain-hunting, travel lovin’ grandma of five says of her blog Here and There, “I invite you to follow the trail of a bargain hunting traveler to learn where she spends her time and money. You may just be surprised at how far one little old lady can stretch a dollar and still come up with top-notch deals!” Well, I for one believe her!

In addition, Here and There currently offers a special Holiday Gift Guide for bargain-savvy readers and lucky for us, Pat. chose our memory game Twisted Fish for inclusion. Her recommendations are doubly appreciated, because not only is Pat. a great blogger, she is also a 30+ year veteran school teacher with a Master’s degree in education!

Below is an excerpt from her review:

“The old game of go fish just got a very challenging twist. It isn’t child’s play any more! Twisted Fish takes a traditional standby and casts it into the 21st century. 13 unique Fish characters in five different colors, plus 8 unique “Zingers” that allow you to break the rules, makes “Twisted Fish” a unique game experience. The real challenge takes place when asking for the fish cards you are collecting—Now you have to be specific about the type of fish and color you are seeking. “Twisted Fish” challenges you to remember every question asked at the table. It is challenging and fun right down to the very last card!

Uncle Luc visited this weekend so naturally hubby and I decided to have some fun and play some games with him. It was a blast. Since I had been sent the card game Twisted Fish, it was one of the first things we put on the table. It is a variation of the old Go Fish, except players make groups of five instead of pairs. Best of all it only costs only $10.00.

Rules are simple and up to six (ages 10 and up) can play. Winning requires concentration, memory, and a tad of bluffing. To mix things up, the deck includes zinger cards for lure net, no fishing, divine intervention, joker, glass bottom boat, dead scuba diver, the game warden, and 2-fisted fisherman. What I liked best was the artwork straight from Hollywood. Every fish is true comic art designed to bring smiles and giggles. Barracuda, Barnacle Blowfish, Card Shark, Clownfish, Crab, Dogfish, Eel, Flying Fish, Hammerhead, Jellyfish, Shrimp, Starfish, Whale, are great play and play on words.”

To read the review in its entirety, or to enter to win a copy of Twisted Fish, visit Pat. at http://hereandthere.us/index.php/2009/holiday-gift-guide-twisted-fish/

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

Red Clay Family Resource Fair is a success!

Ashley McNeill, Delmarva's Angel makes an appearance at our booth space and even sat down to play a few rounds of You've been Sentenced!

The Red Clay Family Resource Fair was held this weekend at the Conrad School of Technology. The event brought together educators, parents, and students for a weekend jam-packed with exciting information, giveaways, and fun! This was a great opportunity for us to introduce our educational games to the local community, plus we met many other providers of fabulous educational services like Yvonne Johnson of the State PTA and Beverly Stewart of Back to Basics Learning Dynamics.

Congratulations to Red Clay Consolidated School District for creating such a wonderful event – we’ll be back next year!

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

Barefoot Mommies gives McNeill Designs games an A+

You’ve heard of Google Alerts, right? Well, I absolutely love them! Because this morning, I got one that linked me to this fantastic review, giveaway and even video of both You’ve been Sentenced! and Twisted Fish by Barefoot Mommies.

Barefoot Mommies is a fun mommy blog, and their Holiday Gift Guide showcases the latest & greatest gifts for this coming Holiday season. We were thrilled to be included! Below is an excerpt of the extensive review. To read the piece in its entirety, or to register for a game giveaway, courtesy of Barefoot Mommies, simply visit http://www.barefootmommiesgiftguide.com/?p=717

From Barefoot Mommies…

“This blog is dedicated to the coming Holidays. We want to give moms & dads out there a chance to see our top picks in products and the quality of those products. We hope to find something to fit everyone’s budget! I love playing games, especially when my whole family can sit and enjoy each other’s company. I especially love to beat my husband at games … heh. He gets so mad and I think it’s so funny!

One of McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds games is called ‘You’ve Been Sentenced!’ this is an absolutely FUN game! My husband, 12 year old daughter and I played this game. My other 3 kids are too young, so we played when they were in bed. We had so much fun playing this game. It’s really easy to understand and come up with actual sentences. Some of the sentences we came up with — we were laughing so hard. This is a very unique game, and not only is it really fun, but it’s also a great learning tool.”

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

You’ve been Sentenced! Makes Top Award-Winning “Brainiac” Game for Girls List

Many thanks to Elizabeth Donovan from Parenting Pink for including You’ve been Sentenced! as one of her Top Award-Winning “Brainiac” Board Games for Girls. An excerpt from her recent post appears below. If you’d like to read the entire post and see her complete list of games, visit http://parentingpink.com/2009/11/top-award-winning-braniac-board-games-for-girls/

 Top Award-Winning “Braniac” Board Games for Girls

November 18, 2009 by Elizabeth Donovan, M. A.

For many families, board games are a ‘thing of the past’, tossed by the wayside in exchange for Nintendo and Wii games. But playing an ‘old fashion’ board game with your daughter has proven to have additional benefits that electronic games do not: they promote family bonding and interaction; build brain power by requiring children to develop strategies and solutions; and provide lots of giggles and hours of fun. Somehow, within our high tech society, today’s children have lost the nostalgia of sitting together on a Friday night and trying to figure out ‘who done it’ in Clue or learning to manage money and collect rent in Monopoly.

The good news? Parenting Pink’s about to bring back brainpower and fun with the help of some award-winning board games!

I believe that one of the keys to having a strong, trusting, and healthy relationship with your daughter is through interactive play. Often, topics come up that your daughter is more willing to talk about if she’s engaged with you and parents are always pleasantly surprised at the things they learn about their children over a family game night. Encourage a love of family and learning with these educational, FUN, noggin-powering games for girls ages 4 and up. Better yet, add one of them to your holiday list this year and give the gift that keeps giving – family fun!

You’ve Been Sentenced!

Do you and your daughter love a little ‘court room drama?’ Then You’ve Been Sentenced! may be exactly what you are looking for! This witty, award winning game (Dr.Toy, Best Toy Award, among others) tests your ability to think quickly and analytically by creating humorous sentences you have to justify in order to gain points. The super cool pentagon shaped cards contain words, historical names, familiar places, and wild cards, that players have to make grammatically correct to justify their sentences. The game really gets exciting and silly when players have to read aloud their sentences and explain why they are grammatically correct. A jury is formed by the players and they then vote whether or not the sentence and justification are sound. There are 540 cards with over 2,500 words insure thousands of sentence combination for hours of non-repetitive, learning fun! You’ve Been Sentenced! is recommended for ages 8 and up, 30-40 min to play, and 3-10 players.

The Parenting Pink Scoop: Get ready to get downright silly while playing You’ve Been Sentenced! It’s a lot of fun and guarantees to get giggles every time. As a mom, I appreciate the educational value of this game in that it encourages children to create ‘grammatically’ correct sentences. It helps girls understand sentence structure and gives them a healthy dose of analytical reasoning as they have to ‘justify’ why they formed their sentence. The combination of grammar and analytic ability are certainly an asset to this FUN game! I also liked the fact that You’ve Been Sentenced! can grow with your child and give her new challenges and creative ways to play. Unlike many games, You’ve Been Sentenced! comes with “add-on decks” so your family can continue to play this game with new card combinations. Add-on decks like “Gourmet Cuisine, Sports Highlights, and Pop Culture” ensure that You’ve Been Sentenced! continues to provide new and fun ways to create game-playing memories!

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

McNeill Designs supports Toys for Tots

Over the last four years, McNeill Designs, in partnership with Success Won’t Wait, has participated in the Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign. This effort, spearheaded by SWW volunteer Ashley McNeill, has been extremely successful in the past. In 2008 alone, volunteers collected and “wrapped” over 800 packages which included over 2,500 brand new books.

This Saturday, Ashley delivered a staggering 2,500+ gifts to the Toys for Tots Toy Drive in Laurel, Delaware. The gifts included hundreds of “celebrity swag bags,” (children’s totes filled with books, comics, stickers, toys and more), “book packs,” (a stack of books each topped with a children’s DVD), and of course, thousands of brand new, hardbound books and McNeill Designs’ games!

 How you can support Toys for Tots: Donate cash or new books at participating The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations. Donations can also be made online. Customers can check with their local The UPS Store or Mail Boxes Etc. location to find out if they are conducting a book drive. To find the nearest location, go to www.theupsstore.com or www.mbe.com.

Susan McNeill is a wife, mother, author, co-founder of the literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and VP of Public Relations at McNeill Designs. Susan also writes blogs for  fashion http://blog.whimsyworldwide.com, literacy http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com and education http://backtobasicslearning.com/learningblog.

Holiday gifts for teens and tweens!

A big thank you to Elizabeth at Mom Reviews for her inclusion of You’ve been Sentenced! in the 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Teens and Tweens. This is a great resource for anyone with those “hard to buy for” teens or tweens.

An excerpt of her review follows. To read the full review, or to check out any of the other amazing products Elizabeth has found, visit http://tweenteengifts.momreviews.net/2009/11/16/youve-been-sentenced/. You may just find that perfect holiday gift!

“You’ve Been Sentenced! by McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds is the first game to take cards with words on them and turn it into a funny, challenging game for players of all ages!  Using a deck of pentagon-shaped cards with conjugations of words, famous names, familiar places, and wild cards, players race to form real sentences from the words and them read them out loud. The other players vote on whether or not the sentence makes sense! 540 cards with over 2,500 words insure billions of possible sentences so the game is never repetitive and can be played over and over.

The McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds website has printable rules for the game as well as variations for more ways to play, and also downloads for teachers to use with grades 6-12. The game comes with the starter card deck, and additional decks are available in categories like Sports, Sci Fi and Fantasy, and Pop Culture. It’s an affordable gift choice for tweens, teens, and entire families!”

The Dirty Shirt recommends You’ve been Sentenced!

Many thanks to Jennifer at The Dirty Shirt for a fab review of You’ve been Sentenced! If you haven’t been to The Dirty Short, this is a wonderful blog written by a really nice mom of three, who also happens to be one of Neilsen’s Top 50 Power Moms!

Below is an excerpt from her review. To read the full review of You’ve been Sentenced!, learn about other fun products in Jennifer’s Holiday Gift Guide, or enter any her great giveawy contests visit http://thedirtytshirt.com/you%e2%80%99ve-been-sentenced-review-and-giveaway

“I have had a dual reaction to playing this game with my children. One from a parents point and one from a teachers point.From my teachers point of view this game is not only fun but it has helped my children, especially my 5th grader, how to form sentences correctly. As a parent, I am happy to see an educational game that helps our children grow and learn. I am so pleased with this game and my family has enjoyed lots of laughter filled evenings playing it. I recommend this to everyone! Kids can have fun and learn too!

I am so happy to say that the wonderful people at McNeil Designs has offered to donate two games for a giveaway to some lucky Dirty Shirt readers. Please see rules below to enter to win a You’ve Been Sentenced! game today!”