Yoto audio player lets kids listen

My son has recently been giggling away as he listens to “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” on the Yoto player. He’s able to remove the card and pop it back in to carry on with the story when he wants to, too. It sounds simple but in fact the Yoto player is doing something special: it’s getting him off the screen and back into picturing what is going on in his head as he listens to the story.

The founders of Yoto, Ben Drury and Filip Denker were inspired by Montessori principles to create a screen-free audio device that kids could safely control themselves; they called it Yoto Player. Montessori is all about creating independence and building creativity so the ability to adjust the device themselves is key.

Listening to stories is not all you can do on the Yoto. They also have two radio stations you can access with the tap of the button, once you’ve linked up your Yoto to the Wifi in the house. Within the app you’ll find kiddie exercises, podcasts and even a way to make your own playlist. You can use it as a bluetooth speaker too, so the possibilities are endless.

We decided to try some of the kiddie exercises the other night and Nicky was jumping around and having fun to “Wake up and Shake up” – although drinking hot chocolate before hand was probably not a good idea! But he enjoyed it. All of this is in a British accent, by the way, which makes a nice change. We got the whole thing to work by linking what was on the app to the card that Nicky decorated.

What’s also cool about it is that it can double as a night light. It has a clock that is always on time and which you can set for daytime and night time mode. Similar to the Groclock, it can show your child when it’s time to get up with the sun. You’ll also find a selection of sleepy sounds on the app.

If you flip it over you’ll see you also get a nice light lamp as well. (It looks a bit like a house, doesn’t it!)

There are lots of cards that you can choose from for stories and quite a few of them come in sets. You can buy a Gruffalo set that includes a whole lot of Julia Donaldson stories. You can listen to the Wimpy Kid like us (very funny). There are also some Enid Bylton books (The Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair). There are loads more you can find online.

So where can you get hold of this player? You can find the Yoto at selected Toys R Us stores, iStores and Takealot.

Here’s a video to show you more:

Disclaimer: We were given the Yoto Player to review.

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Which stories are your favourite?