Last Christmas a set of grandparents gifted A the Yoto Audio Player (recommended and suggested by me :)). I did a bunch of research on different screen-free audio players for kids. My IG was filled with ads promoting the ever-popular Toniebox player. I had only heard of the Yoto Player because a mom friend had recommended it to me when I was talking about possibly getting the Toniebox player. I had never heard of other options, and decided to look into it.
What The Yoto Player Is, And What It Can Do
Essentially, it’s a speaker that can play many different things. There is the Yoto Daily which is a daily podcast that comes out and is about 10 minutes long with educational and interactive games. There are cool features on the Yoto app where you can play a ‘tidy up timer’ which is a five minute countdown encouraging kiddos to clean up. We also love the toothbrush timer that, again, is a countdown only for brushing teeth.
The biggest feature are all of the Yoto Player Cards (the actual stories or songs). Yoto has hundreds of card options on their website that you can buy. Once you buy a card from their website, it will automatically download it to the app and you can play the stories from the app. Eventually, the cards will arrive in the mail and you can take the cards with you and play them wherever. If you forget the cards, and have downloaded the stories on the app, you can play the stories without having the story cards. While this is nice, I will say that A loves being able to control what he listens to and when he wants to change stories. So having the physical card is important if your kiddo cares about being in control of what they’re listening to.
We have a lot of cards, and I got A this card carrying case that is VERY handy. Don’t get the Yoto Player without this card case so that no cards get lost. We also got the Yoto “adventure jacket” which is extremely helpful since we leave the house with this thing almost every day.
One more thing: I love that the Yoto uses cards instead of figures like the Toniebox uses. It’s so much easier to store the stories as opposed to having figurines all over the house.
When Do We Listen?
90% of the time we are listening in the car. We have a decent drive to forest school, so we bring it each time we’re driving to school. If we are driving to a hike, it gets brought along and listened to. Any time we have a drive that is longer than 20 minutes, I usually will have A bring his Yoto.
The Yoto is also used during rest time that we do with A each day where he has his quiet time in the afternoon. I love that he can control this player – it’s one of my favorite parts!
What Do We Listen To?
Each morning we listen to the Yoto Daily. Jake, the host, has fun activities that kids actively participate in. He moves at a good pace (not too quickly) and in general there is always a good range of topics for all ages. At the end of each podcast they do birthdays of kids from around the world. Yoto Player is based out of the UK, so A gets to hear all different accents and places. It’s really cool!
A favorite story card is currently Topsy and Tim. This card came with 25 stories and was a huge hit. The stories are not too long, and they have the same characters with different storylines. It was a great card to start out with for a four year old who was understanding the ‘concept’ of this audio player. For example: chapter stories were way too complex and could not hold the attention of a preschooler.
Other favorite cards: Splat The Cat, Zog The Dragon, and our most recent addition Ladybird Adventures Volume 1
Do I recommend?
If you can think of a time and place where this would be useful, I can’t recommend it enough. I knew that we’d use this in the car on our drive to preschool. It took a few tries to make it stick, but now it’s one of our most used toys in the playroom! I love that A is constantly asking me to define new words he is hearing, that there are no screens, and that he uses his imagination as he listens.
