If you have a Yoto can I get your recommendations

[RedRobyn2021]

I've got my DD a yoto for Christmas, I am SO EXCITED

Obviously on the day she probably won't really "get" it, but once she does I feel like it will be used everyday

DD is 2 (3 in Feb) and I'm looking at getting a couple more cards for her but there are so many to choose from!

She absolutely loves "reading" and being read to (she can't actually read but she will sit and read the pictures of a picture book. We go to the library at least once a week and she will happily sit and be read 10 picture books in one sitting (that's as many as I can manage before I get fed up)

Have been looking at the classics e.g. Peter rabbit/Beatrix potter collection and Paddington bear - will these be too old for her? We have the shorter Paddington bear books which she loves. Don't want to waste money?

Any recommendations would be wonderful

She also loves music so musical based cards might be good too?

What is a yoto?

Unfortunately my recommendation would be to swap it for something else. I had 2, my kids loved them, listened to them every night to fall asleep but within about 2 years they had both stopped working. One developed scary red eyes that freaked the kids out before it stopped working. I loved them but the amount of money we spent on the device and then the cards I'd expect them to last much much longer.

Get the make your own cards and join the Facebook group for tips on what to do with them.

DS got his at 2 and is now rising 4 he too loves stories so here's a few of his favourites.

1. First fairy tales.

2. All of the Julia Donaldson books. 3. Alfie 4. Mog 5. Percy park keeper 6. Who's in your audio book

He adores the fact he can follow along with some of the stories with his actual books too which is adorable to watch.

These have been big hits for a child of a similar age and are still listened to over a year later. My top advice is to find a Yoto selling page on facebook as there are plenty of people offering cheap / free cards, and it's a great way to build her collection for a lower price.

https://uk.yotoplay.com/products/the-fairytale-collection

https://uk.yotoplay.com/products/caspar-babypants-traditional-songs

https://uk.yotoplay.com/products/the-elmer-collection

https://uk.yotoplay.com/products/julia-donaldson-pack

We have had ours longer than 2 years, it’s had a few drops/knocks and it’s working fine.

My kids love theirs, we love the Alfie story’s, Topsy and Tim and Winnie the Pooh.

I used to do a sort by audio length and choose a nice long one to get good value!

We love ours. DD has 2 cards on rotation and they are both make your owns with songs on she loves - I found MP3caprice was one of the few places you can buy and download MP3s for songs and seems good value.

Oh and I second whinge's suggestion. The Facebook group is fab for cheaper cards and brilliant for recommendations or selling cards that your child doesn't gel with.

Did you contact them about the issues? We had a problem with our charger this year and I got in touch and they replaced it for free which I thought was fabulous customer service.

We have a just turned 3 year old, and the most used cards tend to be the music ones (songs for pirates, wheels on the bus etc). The 'who's in your audio book' card gets a lot of use, as well as short stories like Spot and the Peppa pig cards.

We have a set of Julia Donaldson which sometimes get an outing, but not often...it is odd because she LOVES the books when we read them together. I think it is quite a skill to sit and listen to a story being told for 10 mins with no pictures at that age but every child is different!

We got one for our 3yo for Christmas. First few weeks she didn’t get it. By about 3.5 she could operate it herself and loves it.

my daughter is the same with reading, she would let you read to her all day, but it took her ages to sit and listen to a story on a card. She’ll still only listen to a chapter or two of frozen, Encanto etc. So have low expectations!

The problem is not all cards use the characters voices, instead they are narrated like an audiobook. Just one person talking. I expected The Disney ones to be partly narrated, but maybe with bits of movie audio or characters talking, but it’s not like that at all.

I recommend the music cards 100%. She loves those

I also did lots of Make Your Own

Yes to music cards. Also the story ones mentioned above (JD books). Also there's this podcast type thing called yoto daily I think? You click through one of the buttons on the front & it comes on. Both my DC love it, it has a quiz or something like that everyday. It's free to listen to.

Make your own cards are great. We have 2 yotos as DS1 had one but when they started sharing a room DS2 wanted to take control and it caused lots of arguments! So we got him a mini for his birthday. They are both used daily. We have yoto club which you used to get sent 2 cards a month. Now you get 2 tokens to spend which rollover so I save them up and get them new cards for birthdays and Christmas. Easy presents that take up no room 😁 DS likes the Claude stories but the music ones are popular in our house. Also story shed as that changes daily (though be aware you need to be connected to WiFi for that one to work!). On the app there is lots of free content and it stores all your cards so if one goes missing there's no drama. We love ours; can you tell?

We got ours at 2 and it's still used nightly at 6.

For that age music cards win. Also recoginisable characters, as they'll enjoy putting the cards in.

1. Wheels on the bus
2. Julia Donaldson cards are great.
3. Alfie
4. Topsy and Tim

We've had no issues with ours and had it just over two years ago far, I trod on the charger and the little pin came out and they replaced it FOC when we'd had it about 18 months which I thought was good.
At that age DS loved the Julia Donaldson stories and each one has a song on it too. He also liked Paddington, the mog stories. He's now 4 nearly 5 and likes famous five, horrible histories, some of the classics, especially robin hood, we've bought him the road Dahl set for Christmas. He uses it every night, when he's in the bath, in the car we use the app for stories on longer journeys, he also likes the Yoto daily podcast.
When he started school and grandparent care stopped we got all 4 grandparents and great grandma to record a story, then put it on a MYO card that he calls his family card, he was amazed by it.

I love ours. Do does my DC (6). Check out the app, there's loads of freebies, white noise, podcasts and all sorts. There's also radio, my DC likes the children's classical music channel.

We joined the yoto club, so you get 2 cards a month and 10% off everything plus free shipping.

The make your own are lovely too. Get your family members to voice record themselves reading a book, or telling a story,, even singing songs. And then you can upload it to a card and listen my time.

I will! Thank you! Didn't know there was a fb group

Julia Donaldson ones are great

Thanks

Never even thought of Mog

We love yoto, have had ours three years with no issues now.

we like the make your own ones because it means that I can make content around whatever weird and wonderful interest the kids have this month - currently they’re listening to a playlist of songs they’re practicing for the school Xmas play.

Thank you so so much for this

That's so lovely

I might get my mum to do this as she's going away for sporadically travelling for 6 weeks at a time and I know DD will miss her

Did they just read a book?

Sounds like youve got a lot out of it so far

@RedRobyn2021 yes they all read a book that they'd enjoyed reading with DS, but you could do poems, songs if they are musical! The Yoto has also been on holiday with us, it probably gets more use than any other present we've bought him.

I would say the Julia Donaldson collection is a must and then look for some cards that are longer with multiple stories such as the enid Blyton as these are usually about the same cost as some of the short story cards, so much better value for money.