No worries, it’s just a … Brain Foggle?
Have you ever had a brain foggle? You know, the chronic condition we moms have as we (try to) conquer the world as multitasking moms, bloggers and (some of us) Internet junkies!
Lucky for us, Connie Roberts has turned the syndrome into a real positive as she writes her fantastic blog of the same name. She recently received copies of all McNeill Designs products… an excerpt from her review follows. To learn more about Connie visit Brain Foggles. You’ll be glad you did!
“You’ve Been Sentenced is a fun-filled board game for ages 8 and up. Yes, it’s educational because you use grammar to form sentences. Reading aloud is a skill that’s honed during the game and of course, you use your creativity and imagination. The laughter though, is the key. And it’s always part of the game, at least the games we’ve played in my house.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the rules of You’ve Been Sentenced – you’re given 10 cards with 5 forms of the same word (or a wild card). Then use your wits to form a sentence. It does have to be grammatically correct, but you can push the limits. As soon as you’ve done you’re best, grab the timer and turn it over. The rest of the players now have to complete their sentences until the timer runs out. Wanna give it a try for yourself right now? You can play a demo game online for free.
To read this review in its entirety, please visit Brain Foggles“
Fun with a dash of style!
You’ve been Sentenced! recently received recognition from the editors of the award-winning parenting blog Parents with Style.
Their Stylish Award is given to those products deemed outstanding in their categories. You’ve been Sentenced! received the honor within the games and toys category.
Many thanks to the editors of Parents with Style!
McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds recently announced the receipt of a 2010 Tillywig Toy Award for the language game You’ve been Sentenced! Each year, the Tillywig Toy Awards Program delivers to consumers, retailers, and the media the best new toys, games, and other children’s products available.
According to the Tillywig organization You’ve been Sentenced! received the distinction for the “Laugh Out Loud Award” which is given to toys and games notable for the laughs that begin to flow as soon as they’re opened. The Tillywig Toy Award is the 10th national award recognizing the game, which was launched in May 2005.
In order to be selected as a Tillywig Toy Award winner, a product must be determined by the testing team to have high entertainment or educational value. When assessing these values, the focus is on evaluating many factors, including ease of first use, replay value, quality and appearance, social interaction or the “fun factor,” creativity, and thought processes or motor skills.
During the evaluation process, products are used by a number of testers in an observed focus group format. In the Tillywig Toy Award’s final evaluation of any product, comments from observers are integrated with feedback from testers. Both testers and observers come from all walks of life and a broad range of ages.
“Receiving our 10th national award for You’ve been Sentenced! and especially a Tillywig Laugh Out Loud Award just reinforces the fact that in addition to tremendous educational value, this game is really fun to play,” says McNeill Designs Chairman Donald W. McNeill.
McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds recently announced that a license agreement has been reached with Imagine Nation Books (INB) of Boulder, Colorado. The agreement will include the distribution of 40,000 units of the firm’s language game You’ve been Sentenced!
INB, the firm responsible for the launch and growth of the wildly popular book series Chicken Soup for the Soul, approaches distribution in a unique manner. The firm works directly with schools across the country to introduce exceptional educational products directly to teachers and administrators. The You’ve been Sentenced! introduction will begin in September 2010 as part of INB’s fall marketing campaign.
“This is an incredible opportunity to introduce teachers throughout the country to the many benefits of using You’ve been Sentenced! in the classroom,” explains McNeill Designs’ CEO Donald McNeill. “Inclusion in the INB program means that approximately 800,000 to one million teachers will be introduced to the game this year alone.”
In order to be represented by INB, products must pass a very thorough inspection, testing and approval process that takes several months to complete, using hundreds of test units. “We make sure that before we bring a product into our program, it is a winner,” explains Tim McCormick, INB Senior Buyer.
According to McNeill, the inclusion of You’ve been Sentenced! into the INB product mix is the next logical step in the game’s evolution. Over the years he has seen the game go from a “family fun night” staple to an innovative, educational tool.
“When I created You’ve been Sentenced! I wanted it to be a great family fun game. But now just about once a week we get a thank you letter from a teacher or homeschooler who is reaching kids they had been unable to reach before because now they are not making sentences…they are just playing a game!” he says. “I didn’t know that this game was going to have such an impact on the education community.”
You’ve been Sentenced! uses pentagon-shaped cards with conjugations of funny words, famous names, and familiar places. Each player uses his or her hand of 10 cards to build a grammatically correct sentence, racing the other players while also trying to score the most points per round. Sentences also have to be justifiable in meaning, making students use both creativity and common sense.
Since its creation in 2005, You’ve Been Sentenced! has been recognized by both the gaming and education communities and is the recipient of numerous awards including:
* Creative Child Magazine, Seal of Excellence
* Dr. Toy Best Products
* Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Gold Seal Award
* Spewgie Award, Best Family Fun Game
* iParenting Media Hot Product Award
* FAO Schwarz Toy Auditions, Winner
* National Parenting Seal of Approval
* Mr. Dad Seal of Approval
* George Lucas Educational Foundation’s Edutopia magazine, Hot Media for Educators
* MENSA Society’s Parenting for High Potential magazine, Resource Roundup Pick
McNeill Designs was created in 2004 as a toy and game development firm. You’ve Been Sentenced was its first product on the market, and new spin-off versions are now in the make. Their 40+ team members continue to innovate and create new product ideas. Since 2005, a portion of all proceeds from purchases of You’ve Been Sentenced have been donated to Success Won’t Wait!, a not-for-profit organization that collects and distributes new and gently used books to those in need.
For more information about McNeill Designs, its products, and people, or media sample requests please contact Susan McNeill at 302-478-2757 or visit www.McNeillDesigns.com.
Mommy’s Memorandum? Play You’ve been Sentenced!
Many thanks to Julee at Mommy’s Memorandum for taking the McNeill Designs challenge! To read her review, see below, or visit Mommy’s Memorandum.
“Every night our family plays a game together. It doesn’t really matter what game so long as everyone can participate. It’s our family’s time of enjoying each other and learning skills like number recognitions, strategy and just some plain old stuff about one another.
We were given the opportunity to review You’ve Been Sentenced (McNeill Designs, 2005 ) and out of the box, immediately my kiddos loved the shape of the box–a pentagon. It’s the only game we have shaped like this and that contributed to the “wow” factor.,
Opening the cool shaped box we discovered this game had A LOT of cards–540 of ‘em and guess what? They are shaped just like the box. Each card has five words on them–if you’re doing the math with me, that’s 2,700 words used in this game. That’s a lot of vocabulary!
Once I got past the initial overwhelmed feeling of all those cards, we sat down to play. What a hilarious time we had. It wasn’t complicated. You’ve Been Sentenced offers several options for game play. We played “Civil Action”.
We shuffled all the cards into one BIG pile and then took turns drawing ten cards each. With the score sheet at hand we were ready for game play!
The object is to form grammatically correct sentences using as many of your ten cards as possible. You can rotate your cards to get different variations of a word, though some words contain groups of words like “over the”, “off of”, “on the”.
Once someone has a sentence they knock on the table to signal they have completed the task.
From here is when it gets too funny. Starting with the first player to “knock” each player reads their sentence. The other players decide whether that sentence makes sense. You may have to argue that your sentence indeed makes sense and is grammatically correct. Then you all vote. You get 5-points for each card used (some words score as high as 20 points depending on difficulty). If you’re the first to finish and knock you score a ten point bonus. If you use all your cards you get ten points.
In You’ve Been Sentenced there are “Wild Cards” These can be used for any single word but have NO point value. Once every player has read their sentence, defended it and been voted on, all cards are discarded and you move to the next round.
First player to reach 200 points wins the game!
You’ve Been Sentenced also has a great selection of add on packs which help you customize the game to a sports theme, pop culture theme, gourmet theme, sci-fi theme and even a Reader’s Digest Word Power Challenge Pack!
This game appealed to me as well as to my children. My seven year old thought it was a hoot and really worked diligently to create a sentence. Her game play started with what card she wanted to use most. My sixteen year old found this to be something he could play with his younger siblings and still find it challenging and entertaining for himself.
We also received Twisted Fish. This is my six and four year old’s favorite game. I have to admit I found it captivating. It’s just like “Go Fish” only it has another suit and instead of asking for a generic card, you must ask specifically for the card you want, “Do you have an Orange Blowfish?”
The added suit and request for a specific card made this game challenging and had my children paying attention to who was asking for and receiving what to claim the mates to the cards in their hand.
One of the features of Twisted Fish that draws the “oh, no you di’n't” from my family are the “Zinger” cards, these cards allow you to see another players hand, reject the request to hand over your card and more!
There was a lot of laughter and the game moved quickly.
Twisted Fish also has some variation plays, but we’re still playing and enjoying the standard game of play. It’s a charming game with some humorous cartoon fish to play.
My husband and my favorite item in our Box of Fun is the “Wheel of Chore-ture“. First of all, who isn’t already chuckling over how clever the name is? My kiddos think it’s a hoot to spin the wheel and see what chore they’ve been assigned. They all whisper “c’mon set the table” and cringe when they are assigned “wash the dishes”.
The Wheel of Chore-ture has changed the mundane work around our home into a feista of fun–begging to NOT land on the slot and trying to barter with me over “just let me do it again”.
A portion of each retail sale of You’ve been Sentenced! goes to fight illiteracy in the USA through the not-for-profit organization Success Won’t Wait, Inc. Founded in 2002, the organization’s mission is to encourage reading, particularly by children. For more information about Success Won’t Wait and its literacy programs, please visit
http://successwontwaitinc.wordpress.com.”
Hil’Lesha gives us her take on McNeill Designs’ best sellers
Hil’Lesha Anderson tells it like it is… good, bad, and well, you get it. For her opinion on McNeill Designs’ best-selling games, read on!
“My Take: I had never heard of You’ve Been Sentenced! ($24.95) until recently. I love playing board games with the family since that is a great way to bond. Of course, my son is far too young to enjoy this game since it is recommended for ages 8 and up. However, I was able to enjoy playing this game with my sister and young nephews. I even received the Add-On Decks to double the fun ($7.95 for each), which includes: Sports Highlights Deck, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Pop Culture Deck and Gourmet Cuisine Deck. My best friend who is an aspiring chef will enjoy playing the Gourmet Cuisine Deck when he comes down to visit!
The purpose of the game is to try to score the most points per round by constructing the longest, grammatically correct, and sensible sentence. Anyone playing the game can object to another player’s sentence, on either grammatical grounds, or the fact that the sentence just doesn’t make sense. The defending player and the objecting player get to argue their points to the rest of the players, who form a jury. the true fun is trying to defend, explain, and justify a completely ludicrous sentence to the other players. First player to reach 200 points wins.
Twisted Fish is another fabulously fun game designed for ages 8 and up. Basically it is Go Fish with an added twist! Twisted Fish was named Creative Child Magazine 2007 Game of the Year Award. The card deck includes 13 unique fish characters in 5 colors, and 8 unique “Zingers”. Zingers allow you to break the rules. This a challenging game that will have the whole family “hooked.”
Mom wins at Cinnamon Hollow!
According to Cinnamon Hollow WAHM Reviews, “My family and I love to have game night at least once a week. Hubby and I love to play age appropriate board and card games with our children on Friday nights and card games with other family members on the weekend during a great cookout or get together at our house. This is such a great way to teach our kids about togetherness. You’d be surprised the topics of conversation that can come up over a good family game night!
McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds sent my family a couple of wonderful games to test out during our game nights. You’ve Been Sentenced, winner of 6 prestigious awards, is a game that will get your gears turning as you not only have to create sentences with your cards, but defend them as well! Just because your sentence seems great to you, that doesn’t mean your co-players, turned jury, will agree. My husband, 10 year old son and I played together and it was so much fun. Some of the sentences my family came up with were HILARIOUS! You’d be surprised what a 10 year old can put together. His sentences were creative and actually very good, although Hubby, the score keeper, did let him cheat once when I objected to his sentence and Hubby was the winning vote. (Boys!). Even with the cheat…. Mommy won the game!!!…”
Read more at Cinnamon Hollow WAHM Reviews.
“Playing board games are a fun way to exercise the mind and bond as a family. It’s great to connect with the people in your home, with actual dialog instead of plopping in front of the television. Up until now, my husband and I would play Gin Rummy. Now, it’s all about You’ve Been Sentenced!
You’ve Been Sentenced! is played with cards. Each card has several different words, names, place and phrases, and players age 8 and up are dealt 10 cards each. The goal of the game is to try and create a sentence using one word from each card, and to use up as many cards in your hand as possible. It’s sort of like scrabble, but instead of words it’s sentences. Convincing friends that you’ve made a grammatically correct sentence with all of your cards is good for lots of laughs.
We received the games and all of the fun add-on decks: Gourmet Cuisine, Pop Culture, Readers Digest National Word Power Challenge, Sci-fi and Fantasy, and my husband’s favorite–Sports Highlights…”
To read more, visit Penny Pinching Mama.
Cherry Blossoms… skeptical no more!
Many thanks to the folks at Cherry Blossoms for the great review and giveaway!
From Cherry Blossoms… “We LOVE board games at our house. We especially love to invite friends over to try out new and exciting board games. I was lucky enough to receive a box full of fun games to review from McNeill Designs. I received the award winning You’ve Been Sentenced!, Twisted Fish, and Wheel of Chore-ture.
McNeill Designs was founded in 2004. McNeil Designs is no ordinary game development firm. In fact, they prefer to title themselves a “Think Tank,” where creative ideas are allowed to run wild and innovation isn’t a request, but a requirement.
You’ve Been Sentenced Review
You’ve Been Sentenced! comes in a unique pentagon shaped box and when opened I was presented with lots smaller cards which were pentagon shaped as well.
You can play many different versions of the game but my husband, our friends, and I decided to play the Civil Court version.
To read the Cherry Blossoms review in its entirety, please visit Cherry Blossoms. Giveaway is now closed.
Taking Time for Mommy review and giveaway
Many thanks to Mandie at taking Time for Mommy for taking time to try out McNeill Designs’ products! Mandie’s review follows. To read more, or enter some of her great giveaways and contests, visit Taking Time for Mommy.
“Whoo hoo a new game for game night! We love to play games and I recently received a copy of You’ve Been Sentenced, Twisted Fish and the Wheel of Chore-ture to review and give my honest opinion.
The perfect opportunity came to check it out when it was pouring down rain and we couldn’t go outside to play. First we broke out the You’ve been Sentenced game. This sentence-building game uses unique five-sided cards with multiple conjugations of a base word. With a hand of 10 cards, players try to score the most points per round by constructing the longest, grammatically correct, and sensible sentence.
Any player can object to another players sentence, on either grammatical grounds, or the fact that the sentence just doesn’t make sense. The defending player and the objecting player get to argue their points to the rest of the players, who form a jury. Half the fun is trying to defend, explain, and justify a completely ridiculous sentence to the other players. First player to reach 200 points wins. McNeill Designs was kind enough to send all 5 of the add-on decks for us too!
The Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge-This officially licensed deck is taken from the Word Power page of Reader’s Digest and the magazine’s national student vocabulary tournament the Reader’s Digest Word Power Challenge.
Pop Culture-Do you know Lindsay from Jen? What’s an IM? And how do you crump? If you don’t know, you may just learn something from your students!
Gourmet Cuisine-A budding Rachael Ray or Emeril Lasgasse will appreciate this deck, which is filled to overflowing with famous chefs, exotic spices, and all of the kitchen gizmos necessary to cook up some fun!
Sports highlights -Ready, set, hike! This deck contains the lingo of the field, court, and diamond, legendary sports heroes, technical terms, and favorite teams.
Sci-Fi (my personal favorite)-Warn your student to set their phasers for stun and prepare for a warp speed ride through the most memorable of the ever popular sci-fi/fantasy genre!
The second game was Twisted Fish. This was my 5 yr old’s favorite! She loved the colors and funky fish designs. Twisted Fish is a fishy game of outrageous fun! It’s Go Fish, with a twist! Players compete to gather the most points possible by collecting as many ‘Full Baskets’ as they can. A Full Basket is complete set of the same ‘Twisted Fish’. The twist comes in the form of 8 special ‘Zinger’ cards which allow the players to flout the rules, steal cards from other players, prevent other players from fishing, or go again out of order!
This was my favorite! The wheel of Chore-ture! I have this on my fridge and I tell the girls to spin it to see what chore they need to do. They spin, go do their chore then run back so they can spin again. Who knew it could be so simple?”
