Yoto player

[Bannisterhat]

Thinking about getting a yoto for my book obsessed nearly 3yo. Would full size or mini be best? And also any particularly good card recommendations for this age?

We have a Toniebox and I love it. Haven't tried Yoto.

My ds has the full size and my dd has just had the mini for her 3rd birthday.

The large one does have better sound quality and we find it easier to keep charged because it has a docking plug and we mainly use it in its dock beside his bed.

The mini still sounds good but it charges with a usb wire and we keep forgetting to make sure it’s charged up. Much easier to take out and about and pretty much does everything the big one does.

I really think they are great, much better value than a tonie box - the cards and app work really well.

My kids particularly enjoy the topsy and Tim, Daniel the tiger, and Alfie cards best.

@Amermaidandaman thank you, that is very helpful. Am swaying towards the full size

Ahh I’ll be watching with interest as we want to purchase one too for ours

We have had a Tonie for 5 years, getting both kids a Yoto each this year. They’re 8 & 6 now. Tonie will be used by 1 year old. Yoto seems MUCH more interesting - recipe cards, language cards, phonics etc as well as stories.

They've got an offer on at the moment but wonder if it's worth waiting for black friday

Yoto are fantastic, I recommend them to everyone. The cards take up less space and the app offers all sorts of extra stuff. There's kids podcasts, stories, loads of white noise options, mindfulness stuff, , radio options.

We also use ours as a clock and an alarm. Once you have bought a card, they appear on the app, so you can use them anytime without having to have them to hand.

We've downloaded songs from kids bop and put them on make your own cards and DC use those for a disco!

I promise I'm not on commission but I really rate them. We've had our nearly a year and it's been used every day. I'm considering getting a mini for in the car.

I do have a referral code for 10% off if you'd like it? Direct message me and I'll send it across to you.

We have 2 yoto minis and fully recommend them, we find battery life to be great and dc love them - also great size for travelling, have never felt they are inferior or should have gone for the full sized ones. Ours have been with us on several holidays, can’t see us having done that with the full size one

My kids go through loads of different phases with the cards, but the one they put on most is one I recorded. There’s not bad resale value so I just try to have a bit of a mix. Julia Donaldson set is great for a 3 year old but you’ll definitely find it secondhand as they grow out of it fairly quickly. There are Facebook groups for selling cards.

My two absolutely love the daily podcast!

Ooo where did you find them on sale?

Another for Yoto. Two minis which have come on every holiday with us since we purchased them. We connect them to headphones for long journeys and love that the cards are easily stored. We've made our own ones, too, including a script of a play that one had to learn for school. We too haven't regretted the purchase.

We have 2 full size ones and they are amazing! Best presents I've ever bought!

Highly recommend the Yoto, my DD got hers when she was 3 and still uses hers now and she's nearly 8 years old. I think it has lots more longevity than the Tonie which I think is more for younger kids. I bought one on the Black Friday sale last year.
I would go for the big one - we still take this on holiday, listen in the car etc - pretty portable.

Watching 👀

My DD got one for Christmas last year when she was 5 and she absolutely loves it. Uses it every night at bedtime and loves listening to the podcast. We have the mini and like others have said, great battery life and good for travel. We take it on holiday to help her settle at night.

I have 4dcs and between them they have kindle, Yoto, Yoto mini and a tonie box. Overall Yoto is great 6-12, older if you are more tech minded than me (I couldn’t work out how to get audible books onto the cards?? So my eldest has my kindle 🙄).
Pros-Yoto subscription is good value as you can save up your cards or choose new ones every month. Yoto daily radio is great. Easy to make new cards if you lose them. You can use as a Bluetooth speaker. You can cast content from the app straight to the Yoto if the cards is in your library (this has been surprisingly useful). I think they will update but at the moment the full size can’t connect to Bluetooth headphones but the mini can do both sorts of headphones.
Cons for the mini are charging (I also wish it had a dock).

Tonie box def aimed at younger 3-6 imo. Pros are less breakable- ours has been dropped a lot, and still works!! And the tonies don’t get lost as much as the cards. Some younger kids do enjoy the toy type nature of the tonies, my dd loves them. Cons it can’t do all the stuff the Yoto can do and the tonies take up more space if you carry them outside the house. The tonies are too expensive imo unless you make your own. But for Christmas I have still bought gabbys dollhouse, the large family, and Paddington bear tonies on a 3for2 deal as my dd does love them. She also loves the miffy tonie. A LOT.

@MinnieL they aren't on sale but they're doing a promo with a free adventure jacket which is worth £24.99 on the Yoto website

We have a yoto mini, yoto has yoto radio too so you can listen to music uninterupted. I have a 5 year old and we have a strap on the yoto mini, she can wear it as a bag pottering around the house whilst keeping her hands free. I’ve been happy with the mini.

Another vote for the Yoto mini. Listened to every night to go to sleep and for car journeys etc. Also the radio on there is good and the daily podcast.

What age did you all get your yoto please? I’m thinking my ds is still too little and the recommended age of 3 is right with this one?

not sure what price the yoto mini goes to in Black Friday sales but a google search found the mini is currently on sale at £53 with postage included https://alittlefind.com/products/yoto-mini-player?variant=39956683063358&currency=GBP&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0fvT0N-fggMVzdLtCh3tjADaEAQYASABEgLHovD_BwE

We have an Original and it's great. I love that it lives on the dock. Sound is good. But for portability I'd say go for the Mini if you plan to use it for travel.
My daughter is getting a Mini for Christmas, more because it'll fit on the tiny shelf in her room as she's 10 and has been listening on the app for the past year and I want to banish phones at night.
My boys have the Original and they're 12 and 10...so much content for all ages, and the mindfulness, sleep radio and daily podcast are fantastic. The Yoto has so much longevity for all ages. I can't say enough good things about it.

The previous poster who has used it for scripts...that is genius! I'm now thinking I need to exploit the Make Your Own more for the kids school stuff...weekly times tables and spellings etc. It's a really versatile device.

We love ours. Have 2 full size ones. Both kids got one when they turned 4. They both loved the enchanted wood stories the most at that age. Oldest ds, now 6, likes podcasts mainly now. Younger ds, 4, still likes any Enid blyton stories. At the moment he's all about the Halloween themed Enid blyton ones.

I was a massive fan of the YOTO player but unfortunately can't recommend them anymore. My children had them and listened to them going to sleep each night, they worked brilliantly for about 18 months then we started having issues. The first issue was one of the chargers started to make a weird high pitched sound, I contacted Yoto, they said it was a known fault and replaced the charger but replacement had the same problem. Then the lights started to break on them (we had two.) On one of them we couldn't change the nightlight function off red and that colour scared the kids at night in the dark. Then the 'eyes' also got permanently stuck on red on the other one, also scaring the kids. After a few months of still using them around these issues they both unfortunately got to the point where they just weren't working anymore. Issues with them not charging, then not connecting to the internet and ultimately just not playing the stories anymore. This happened with both of them within a couple of months of each other. For something that cost so much, including needing to buy the stories on the top of the actual player I expected it to last much longer than 2 years. (I should also point out these weren't messed around with by the kids, they were both kept on a shelf and not thrown around etc.)

I got a mini - it's great for in the car