Tonies box for 2 yo?

[Gymbunnbunn]

Really interested in these as my DS loves books so I like how the characters tell a little story when you pop them on and thought it may get him used to headphones listening to stories etc

it would be for his 2nd birthday which is the same week as Christmas! We have a big present for each and we’ve got him a balance bike for Christmas so thought this could be his big birthday present

is he too young for it? But then again we kind of buy stuff to last as long as possible because of his birthday being close to Christmas

so my DH said even if he enjoyed it from next spring/summer etc?

for example we got him a plush animal wooden rocker for his 1st birthday and now he’s just started enjoying it!

Ah the trials and tribulations of birthdays close to Christmas’ for parents haha!

Yes that put me off too. The yoto cards are far less attractive as a toy

Unpopular opinion - for me, reading to a young child is about them having your full attention and physical proximity, feeling warm and enjoying the cadence of your voice, interaction through asking questions and doing silly voices etc.

These toys don't give you any of that, and they also have a much more limited range of books.

I guess there's a place for both but they're not a substitute for reading with a child in person.

Definitely not an unpopular opinion. They are not a replacement for reading. But they are fun for eg. Getting ready for school. Winding down after nursery. In the car.

Do it, 2 is the perfect age. DD got her Toniebox at that age, and she still uses it at now nearly 8!

They aren’t a substitute for reading with your child. They are another mechanism to interact with your child, like puzzles, and another way for your child to build independence, like playing by themselves. We still read to our DD. She takes her books off and “reads” to herself (she’s a toddler so doesn’t read, just babbles to herself). She also likes the music from the tonies box, she likes dancing to it. Sometimes we dance with her, sometimes it’s useful to let her dance by herself while we do something else. Sometimes it’s background music while playing.

OP - we got DD a toniebox when she was just over 1 (she’s not quite two, so just a bit older than your DS). We mostly use it for lullabies when she is going to sleep. We also use it if she’s woken up too early, she’ll happily lie in her bed with her music on. Sometimes she’ll fall back to sleep and sometimes she won’t. We do use it too much during the week as we don’t really have time but at weekend we’ll pick a couple of characters and let her play the stories/music. She doesn’t always get through a full story, she likes changing them but she knows which ones play her favourite nursery rhymes. We don’t let her have it unsupervised at the moment due to the potential of putting things in her mouth, so not doing it in the car and we haven’t introduced headphones yet. She really likes it. She likes that she can carry it around, she likes the little figures and she spends a long time trying to figure out how it works.

My DD has a tonie box, we much prefer it over the yoto. She is now 6, nearly 7 and she still listens to it every day even though she has had it for years. There’s such a good variety of stories for all ages. 2 is definitely not too young!

If only my DD would accept the Toniebox instead of me reading to her!! We often do both (ie read together & listen to a Tonie) at the same time....
I do still read to her but the Toniebox is great for quiet, rainy afternoons, getting ready for nursery, winding down whilst getting ready for bed etc. It's significantly expanded her vocabulary.
We're members of a local Tonie library run by an independent toy shop - that's a great, cost effective way of finding out what content she likes.

Fair enough!

Yes like most pps I’d say 2 is not too young but definitely get Yoto not Tonie.

DC1 got his yoto at 3 but he shares a room
with DC2 who has loved it since she was old enough to understand what it was (probs about 18 months), so I don’t think 2 is too young.

In the yoto v tonie debate, the fact it was cards not figurines is a massive pro for me as they are so much easier to store and transport. They are also about half the price of the tonie figurines.

Also - I’m not sure whether a tonie can also do this, maybe they can - when you buy a card it immediately appears in your phone app, before it’s even arrived in the post. So if you lose a card you can easily make a new one, and if you don’t have the player with you (eg in the car) you can play your entire library through your phone. Can also control the player itself with your phone so you can eg turn it off or put on sleep sounds from downstairs.

Oh and as well as the stories it does timers for tooth brushing and tidying up, plus really cool soundscapes that you can use as backdrops for imaginative play and white noise for sleep. My kids love all of those, and the podcast/Sunday quiz.

Agree that audio books are not a substitute for an adult reading to a child. But we used to spend over an hour a day in the car - I can’t read to her in the car, but she can have stories on her Yoto. If she wakes up at 2am, I’m not reading to her, but she can listen to her Yoto. It’s additional stories, which can only be a good thing - and for us, significantly delayed and now reduces the amount of iPad time she has. At a restaurant or in the car she has never used an iPad - she just defaults to the Yoto. She parrots stuff she’s heard all the time and is aware of stuff like the date from the daily podcast (‘tomorrow must be the 23rd cos Jake said it was 22nd today’) so it must be going in!

I don’t understand the yoto love!

My DCs just didn’t engage with it at all, where as the Tonie was something they could both use independently from before they were 2, and would choose a figure to have on while playing, drawing etc (usually songs)

DS1 is 6 and loves the National Geographic ones, and when DH went away for a long-ish work trip, he recorded himself reading stories for them kids which they adored

We do a swap shop with friends for the figures rather than always having to buy them, and this works well. I don’t think as many people have a Yoto so wouldn’t be able to do this with one

The Tonie box is also so much more robust. It’s been dropped down the stairs, stuffed into bags and cases, had juice spilled on it etc and it’s still going strong

Does the Yoto have the music for Disney stories etc like the tonies? I can see the appeal of the mini for travel as it looks much easier to store than a Tonie box but I think I’d use it in addition to.
the range of cards don’t look as good either for a younger age range as far as I can see, unless I’m missing a load!

No, the Disney stories don’t have the music on Yoto. You can make your own cards with Disney songs but they don’t have them on the pre made cards.

Not sure where you’ve got the idea the Yoto isn’t robust. Ours has also been dropped and so on and is fine. I think both products are equally kid proof in this respect.

No the Disney Yoto story cards don't have the songs, but as i've said above most of the Disney Tonie characters aren't the original audio. This isn't really made clear at all on the listings, so does catch many customers off guard as they're expecting the songs their children know and enjoy.

I use Spotify playlists for kids audiobooks which I think is the same idea as Tony's?

I think they’re both really robust?

Also you can record stories for both. Bit weird to say more people have one than the other…is that just based on people you know? I think both are very popular. And both simple enough for a 2 year old to operate.

Yoto uses cards and has a lot of additional features. Tonie uses figurines, is more expensive and doesn’t have the additional features (or as many anyway).

Yes, but the joy of a tonie box or Yoto is the kid controls it themself even at 1 or 2, and has no access to games/you tube etc like they would on a phone/tablet!

We have a toniebox and have never had an issue with Disney ones being unexpected song wise - some just have a slight tweak of the lyrics, but nothing major that we've noticed.
That's good about the cards for the Yoto - I've downloaded similiar on the blank tonies you can get.

I've been considering the Yoto mini for travel - can anyone explain the display to me? Does it change during the story or does it form a static character linked to that story? Thank you!

We got our DC it for their second birthday and they love it

went for tonies box over yoto as I knew they'd love the characters

It generally shows one picture per track, so the child can easily navigate to the track they want before they can do numbers. I think maybe some of the cards for older kids (8+) might just have 1 picture the whole card but don’t have any for that age so not sure.

if you make your own cards you can upload pixel art of your choice, either drawn yourself on an app, or downloaded from yotoicons.com or the Yoto supplied ones.

on the phonics and maths cards, the picture displays are inherent to the teaching, so when learning the sound ‘e’ an e will appear on the screen while the track talks about e, or on the counting one a number of objects show on the screen for the child to count, then the audio will confirm the correct number after a few seconds.

DS had that with Spotify. It's on a smart speaker so he can ask for certain stories from the allowed playlists.
So if he wants to listen to the jungle book or Peter rabbit, he just tells the speaker.

Dd is 7 and still listens to her Tonie box every night. She likes the figures and has an Alexa for podcasts and music etc. So they don’t outgrow them for a while if they’re anything like Dd.

Oh yeah ok if they have their own smart speaker I guess that works the same way, once their speech is good enough to ask for it.

Tbf that's a really good point. We started using it when he was 2 so he would ask us for stories and we'd ask/set it up for him until his speech was good enough for them to understand him.