Help me find the right kids music player

[InChocolateWeTrust]

What I need is something:
Fairly small and portable with a headphone socket
Easy for a 3-4 year old to use independently
With a built in small speaker
Able to be used without internet connection

I thought I had found this with yoto player. However, I hadnt realised that the cards don't actually contain the media! You put the card in and it then uses internet to connect to a server and downloads the audiobook or music etc.

This means if we go on holiday and have no internet (we are going somewhere where this is the case), or are in the car etc my dc want to change the card, it wont be able to connect and download.

I basically want a modern version of a tape/CD player, where the DC has a few and can choose to swap tape etc and it's not relying on the internet.

Does this exist?

An ipod?

I dont want something with a screen as my kids just get addicted

You’re wrong about the Yoto! Although the card doesn’t contain the media as such, when you put the card in to the machine for the first time, the next time it isn’t being used and it’s on the charging dock (I think that’s when it does it anyway) it downloads the card onto your Yoto’s internal memory. So if you go on holiday, it will play your cards as long as you have put them in the machine and fully downloaded them beforehand. There is a way to check on the Yoto app (and the app is v handy as you can play all the cards straight from the app too).

I highly recommend the Yoto. The Yoto mini controls really confuse my four year old but we do have and use both. I also recommend the Yoto club subscription.

This is from part of the app you can check here to make sure every card you’ve put in is fully downloaded.

Yes, I was about to say this. It only needs to download the first time you use the card, not every time. Just make sure you've put the cards in once before you go away and they'll all be in there.

Yoto is great!

You can buy portable CD players that play MP3's that you can burn to a cd rom if you have access to a computer with a CD-ROM drive (my work pc does) we go this for the older car. Or use cds of course. Screens are only addictive if you let them be

What about an old ipod shuffle? That one is going for one pound on ebay at the moment...

There's also a old school style boom box that has a sd slot but it's quite a bit more for a child.

(Though still less than yoto, just looked it up - they saw parents coming!)

We've got a yoto definitely doesn't need to be connected to the internet other than for first time download of each card which takes about a second. Any new cards we just put in straight away and whip back out. I also like the app because it means DS can easily have his audiobooks in the car (phone connects to car via Bluetooth) . We took it on holiday to the Netherlands via France recently got lots of use out of it.

Oooooh thanks to everyone who has explained this, looks like we might get what we need with the yoto!

Yes definitely to the yoto. Ours actually didn't do this - it turned out to be faulty and yoto replaced it.

They do a yoto mini now too with a really cute carry case. Although we just have the big one.

We absolutely love our yoto player- and just a heads up that if your local library has a digital membership you can actually borrow audiobooks and put them in yoto "make your own" cards.

Obviously when your loan expires you'll need to delete it from your yoto app but it's a great resource.

You can also purchase mp3 audiobooks from places like hive.co.uk and put them on "make your own" cards.