You’ve probably heard all about the wondrous devices called Yoto Players. My two grandsons, ages 5 and 7 enjoy theirs. In case you don’t know what a Yoto Player is, here’s an explanation. A Yoto player is a rugged, kid-friendly portable box that can play audio files. I would have loved having one of these for each of my children! My youngest is 17 so we missed using these as they came out after all my kiddos grew up, but I’m glad my grandchildren can benefit from them. It would have been SOOOOO nice to have a device to hand to my children so they could listen to audiobooks without having to use my CD player, my mp3 player or phone. Watch below to learn all about them.
It’s a modern, smaller, wireless version of the Walkman, especially for the under-12 set. It provides screen-free, stress-free entertainment for children. They can listen to books, podcasts, music, sound effects, and more! All while the parent maintains control by filtering and curating the content.
Here are my top 10 tips for how to use the Yoto player and benefit from its technology beyond playing audio files.
- Get a tote/box/case for your Yoto Player. My grandsons have each had a mini Yoto player for years, but it wasn’t until my daughter, their mom, got these handy dandy cases for them that that they consistently started using them. These cases solved several problems: keeping the cards with the player, keeping the headphones with the player, and keeping the player charged. Each of these things left undone often made a few steps to get going with the Yoto player, which meant less frequent listening.
Then she found these storage/carrying cases or totes on etsy that keep the player, the Yoto cards, headphones, and the charging cords all together. The case even has a portal to allow the player to be charged while staying in the carrying case. Check etsy over here to find a variety of cases. You can even get them personalized with the child’s name! (That’s what’s under the yellow coloring in the photos above.) Just remember to get the right size tote for your player, the original or the mini.
How wonderful! This is the Maria Principle in action!
2. Use a Yoto player with your children to encourage quiet reading time. If I had little children at home, I would definitely be using these for a 1 hour quiet time after lunch. How wonderful to have an audio file playing device you can leave with very young children in their bedroom and not stress about them breaking it, like you would with a CD player. It just sounds so fun to be playing with Legos or Calico Critters or paper dolls or coloring while listening to a classic story. Then Mom gets a break to have quiet time on her own, to nurse the baby down for a nap and/or take a nap herself or do her own creative stuff.
See Sarah of readaloudrevival.com explain why it’s great to have quiet reading time every day for your child, below.
Then learn below how Hannah uses a Yoto player for her three year old for quiet time.
3. See if your public library has Yoto cards to check out like mine does. You don’t even need a Yoto player to use them, you can just use the Yoto app on your phone. So I encourage you to check out your library to see if they have these, and if they don’t, ask them to get some. You can explore different cards and what they sound like without buying a player yet. Just like with books, it is nice to borrow an item and check it out before you buy. Some things are worth having for life, and some, just temporarily, on loan. You can find such a variety of stories and songs by borrowing them, and then if you really love a particular one, go buy the card. My library has the Chronicle of Narnia stories, Muppet Stories, and so much more.
4. Did you know that you can make your own cards for your Yoto player? Yes you can! So that’s tip #4, make your own cards. See below.
5. Use this website, yotoeverything, to ask and answer questions, hear samples of all the cards in the playlists, see independent reviews of the players and accessories, and get more tips and tricks.
6. After you learn how to make your own Yoto cards you can also use this website: yoto.space to get even more content for your Yoto player.
7. Go outside the Yoto ecosystem and get stories from storynory.com or librivox.org. The video above talks about that. The dad in the video above says to use audiobookloader.com, a site he coded, to help with transferring the files.
8. Learn EVEN more tips and tricks about Yoto cards from these parents below. Which should you buy? the original or the mini? Watch below to answer that question and learn everything else you would ever want to know.
9. The generic name for a Yoto card is an NFC tag. The items use an NFC chip that communicates wirelessly (NFC stands for near field communication). You can use this technology for more than just a Yoto player. You can buy your own stickers with NFC chips to do so much more for your household and homeschooling efficiency. Consider using this technology for your rhythms and routines, including Morning Basket time. Watch below at about the 7:30 mark.
For example, Katie in the video above says you can digitize all your books and songs you use for homeschooling, put them in a Google drive, then let your children access the files with NFC tags by tapping a phone next to the tag. You can put an NFC tag on your washing machine (if there’s a plastic part) or next to the washing machine, if it’s all metal (she says below not to put the tag on metal). When you tap your phone on that, it automatically sets a timer on your phone to remind you when the cycle is done. Watch homeschool mom Katie below tell you all these ideas to make your life more efficient with NFC tags.
10. Here are some videos of favorite Yoto cards of some families.
11. Think a Yoto Player is out of reach of your budget? If you use funds from Open Ed or other charter schools, a Yoto Player is probably reimbursable. Or use birthday or Christmas money to get one.
12. Yoto is about to come out 4th generation versions, which have a new green button to allow the child to quickly get through a playlist. Watch above to learn if it’s worth getting the 4th gen. Yotos.