All About the Yoto Audiobook Player + Our Favorite Cards

1. It's a little pricey.

2. My kids have never been big audiobook fans.

Turns out, we've now been using Yoto audiobook players for two years, and they have been 100% worth the investment... and I want to share why.

But first, if you're not familiar with the Yoto audiobook player, it's a screen-free way for kids to play audiobooks. Kids have control over volume and chapters, and you can take the Yoto completely "offline" so it's great for road trips, too! You purchase cards with individual audiobooks on them, and can play them through speakers or with headphones.

• Even little ones are able to operate the Yoto player. We got one mini player for each of our kids when our youngest was 3 years old and our oldest was 9. They are used every day.
• There are so many options for great books!
• You can use the built-in speaker or headphones.
• Yoto players can go into "offline" mode at any time (great for road trips!), but still work to listen to the desired audiobook. We generally keep the Wifi on long enough to download the cards, then disconnect the players from the internet.
• I am easily able to control volume limits and other settings (like turning Yoto radio on and off) from an app on my phone.
• When you order audiobook cards from Yoto, they immediately download into your Yoto app so I can send them to the kids' Yoto players even before the physical cards arrive in the mail. (Isn't this cool?)
• You can also use the Yoto as a Bluetooth speaker, so you can play books through it from your phone, even if they aren't part of your Yoto card collection.
• The audiobooks are the very best quality. We haven't encountered an annoying or dull voice. They are all produced with excellence and come through the speakers very clearly.

• It can get pricey. The Yoto Mini players have the same functionality as the larger players, so we originally chose the Yoto minis due to price... but still, the audiobook cards are also expensive. If you have multiple kids, you'd probably (eventually) want to save up to buy multiple players. If your kids love these as much as mine do, they'll be listening all the time. Also, you can purchase cards for less on Facebook buy/sell/trade groups. So be sure to check that out!

Yoto Club - Is it worth it?

Becoming a member of the Yoto club is an economical way to get more books! There are currently three membership tiers to choose from: Explorer ($4.99/month), Collector ($9.99/month), and Collector + ($16.99/month). All tiers include unlimited access to 200+ Yoto Originals (digital), and members-only radio stations, sleep sounds, and timers. The Collector and Collector + tiers include 10% off everything in the Yoto store, monthly club credits to spend on new cards, and (the best part!) free shipping on every order over $15. The free shipping alone has made it worth it for us!

Our family has both—we have four Yoto Minis (one for each child) and one larger Yoto Player and I can say, hands down, we prefer the Yoto Mini. While I can see how the larger Yoto Players would be helpful if you plan for your kids to share one, it's harder to carry around because it's so much bigger. Ours gets very little use in comparison to our Yoto Minis which are used all the time. I also think the speaker quality is the same on both players. Both can be used with headphones as well. 

The Yoto players themselves have proven to be very durable, but we do love adding the Adventure Jackets for extra protection and also to distinguish which Yoto belongs to which child. It's been a worthwhile purchase for us!

Yes! All of this can be adjusted in the settings on your Yoto app on your phone. We personally love the Yoto Daily podcast with Jake (we listen to it together during lunch) and haven't heard anything concerning in the two years we've been listening. But it's easy to turn it off or on. 

It's been helpful for us to keep our Yoto cards in one place. I found this $10 credit card holder from Amazon that fits the cards perfectly (up to 96 of them!) and keeps them from getting lost. 

We have Yoto headphones that work well, but really any pair of headphones will work! We love these more economical headphones for kids, too. 

Yes! This has been one of our favorite things about the Yoto! I wrote an entire blog post with all the information of how we make our own cards and create durable stickers for them. You can find that here:

You'll need to purchase Make Your Own cards from Yoto before getting started. 

Bottom line: 

Our kids - all four of them - love listening and will listen for hours. As it turns out, they didn't dislike audiobooks. We just didn't have a great way to listen to them. Until now! This has been a worthwhile investment for us and would make a wonderful gift. You could even ask grandparents to purchase some cards for you! These are also perfect for road trips as they can go completely offline and the kids will happily listen to a book of their choice for hours. 

• My First Classical Music collection* - All four kids love listening to these cards while they read other books or during rest time. 
• JJ Heller's I Dream of You Music Cards: "Calm" and "Sleep"
• The Chronicles of Narnia Collection* - These are unabridged and so beautifully done. 
• The Boxcar Children collection
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden*
• The Henry Huggins collection
• Stuart Little by E. B. White
• Charlotte's Web by E. B. White* (narrated by Meryl Streep)
• Ratatouille
• Tangled 
• Cars
• Finding Nemo
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• The Magic Tree House books Collection 1 & Collection 2 - All are wonderful, and the kids love reading along with their paperback books.
• Stories from Shakespeare
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery*
• The Moffats by Eleanor Estes*
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• Our friends at Kaleidoscope have recently released two Bible-based Yoto cards! Good News: The Story of Acts and Living Water: The Gospel of John are beautiful retellings of these books of the Bible, told and presented at an elementary reading level. You can use code BRIGHTERDAY15 for 15% off these cards.