Surprisingly, something that I have not talked about before is our absolute love for reading in this house. My kids can truly disappear into books for hours on end. Our favorite day of the week at school is library day. Most afternoons when they arrive home with a new library book, they disappear into a chair and just devour their new books. We frequent our local library all the time. The other way that my kids love to enjoy books is also their Yoto Players. This month, in honor of National Reading Month, I am diving a little more into our Yoto Player and how we use them at our house!
Yoto Players
So what is a Yoto Player? Simply, it is an audiobook player but it is much more than that. There are two types of Yoto Players, there is the Yoto Player and the Yoto Mini. We actually only own the Yoto Player and absolutely love it. There are a few differences between each and some of the biggest differences are the price and size. The Yoto Player is larger and more expensive versus the Yoto Mini which is smaller and cheaper. Many people use the Yoto Mini for listening in the car or while traveling. A couple other differences are that the Yoto Player has the ability to be used as a nightlight and it has a longer battery life.
Large Age Range
Something we absolutely love is that the Yoto offers a wide range of cards that you can utilize with the player. They have quick story books for younger children and long chapter books for older children. We have been using our Yoto players for at least 2 years now. Our kids range from toddler to school age and we have cards appropriate for both. My oldest can sit and listen to a chapter book all day, she will carry her Yoto around with her. While my youngest may listen to a story here and there or even just parts of a story. A really nice feature is that if you pull a card out of the Yoto to pause it, when you place it back in it resumes from the same place. It is almost like a bookmark and for long books this is essential!
How We Use Our Yoto
Our favorite time to use our Yoto is car rides. Which is honestly funny because we have the larger Yoto and the Mini is better designed for travel. Our kids also use them for quiet time and even just when they are overstimulated. Sometimes my kids will even pull them out while they are playing, what we notice is that honestly it extends their play time. Their attention span is longer, they can listen and do crafts or play sensory for so much longer! The Yoto lives in their room which is great because they can retreat to their own space. We do utilize the nightlight feature and even have an alarm set for school.
One of the best parts about the Yoto is that they are hardy cards. They are easy to handle and kids can easily grab a card. The card can be inserted into the player in any direction which makes playing it so easy for little hands. We store our cards in the official Yoto card case. I know many families store them in different ways but this allows our family to use any card at any time they want as they are not interconnected. We do have more than one Yoto so if they are linked together, two kids cannot listen to the same series at the same time if they are linked together.
Our Favorite Feature of Yoto
Make Your Own Cards!! This is truly one of the best features of the Yoto! You can make your own cards that the kids can listen to at any time. This allows for you to read their favorite story, record their bedtime songs, and even allow grandparents or aunts and uncles to read to them! The first time I recorded a Make Your Own card, I sang all the bedtime songs for my kids before I headed back to work after maternity leave. My husband said it helped so much with bedtime routine and allowed my kids to feel connected even though I wasn’t at home.
That Christmas, we gifted all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents a Make Your Own Card. We requested that they read a favorite book or books so that our kids could listen to them whenever they desired. This is such a fun way for families, especially those who live out of town to stay involved. It is also a great way to expand favorite books in the house.
Make Your Own Cards are also a fantastic way to allow the cards to grow with your children. It provides the flexibility to have a couple short picture books for when they are younger and to replace them with longer chapter books when they are older. So instead of outgrowing cards, the cards grow with them! You can continue to change the audio that is on a Make Your Own card whenever you would like.
Audiobook Company
We have not branched out much into the realm of downloading audiobooks from other sources, most of our cards are original Yoto Cards or Make Your Own that we have recorded ourselves. We have looked into and downloaded a few audiobooks from Libro.fm. This company functions both on a buy and download as well as a membership. Also, a couple times of year, they have a large audiobook sale which is when we tend to buy some audiobooks from them. Their audiobooks are downloadable and you can choose a local bookstore to support!
Club Collection
In the most recent change to Yoto Club, the Club now comes with access to hundreds of cards. These have quickly become some of our favorites. This has been incredible for our kids. We can take the time to put those cards onto a Make Your Own Card or even just listen to them in the car. Currently, Brain Bots is a fan favorite in our family and they are learning so much through listening!
Yoto Player
The Yoto Player is truly one of our favorite screen free activities. We absolutely love to read in this household. There is never a shortage of library trips or books around the house. My kids know that if they bring us a book, it will be read to them. They also know that many times older siblings will even read to them if they ask. We never miss a night of bedtime stories! The best part of the Yoto is that it allows for us to enjoy books quickly and easily. It can entertain our kids for hours on end.
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