My kids (5 and 7) love the yoto mini. They both use them at bedtime (after reading books) and it really does help with wind down and fights over bedtime. They can listen to them as long as they want so long as they stay in bed. My 7 year old listens to "yoto daily" which is a free daily podcast. But, I do think the content is expensive. I joined the yoto club to get 2 free cards per month, but find that most of what interests them is not included so I end up buying cards.

We have and like our yoto player but doesn’t really help with bedtime for our stubborn night owl kid—she just stays up anyway. I actually find it more helpful in the mornings—the kids will calm down and listen to a story during breakfast. We have bought a handful of cards but actually use free content a lot too—I downloaded some podcasts the kids love (kids classical storytime is great).

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain the appeal of these vs reading books to kids yourself? I read with dc for almost an hour everyday. Will it still be a plus? I see these everywhere feels like everyone has one

It would be for quiet playtime, not to replace reading. Can replace tv or tablet time for example.

We usually read to our kids for a while before bed but if my older kid took a nap that day she will still be awake for a while once she goes to bed and the Yoto helps her relax and go to sleep.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain the appeal of these vs reading books to kids yourself? I read with dc for almost an hour everyday. Will it still be a plus? I see these everywhere feels like everyone has one

It’s not to replace reading. It’s just to play music and stories.

My toddler has a toto and a Tonie box. The Tonie box gets a ton more use. It’s dumb but the little figurines are a great gimmick. The cards just didn’t catch on. I think for 3+ the yoto is probably better. But for 1-3, the Tonie box is great (except not great because of the expense of the stupid little figures and how much of a PITA it is to load your own songs).

Can someone explain the appeal of these vs reading books to kids yourself? I read with dc for almost an hour everyday. Will it still be a plus? I see these everywhere feels like everyone has one

Another EXTREMELY POSITIVE review here, my suggestion for younger kids to get them interested in listening is to get a couple known character cards for things they like, this got my DC really hooked and initially I thought it could be a bust bc they Only listened to Frog and Toad for like 3 months. Then I also bought an Aladdin card and they loved it too, after those first few months they really Branched out into all the other cards. Even bedtime stories/meditation cards which I think helped my kid stay in bed. (Also if you do get the Classic Disney movie cards, get the one with the single character face on them, like just Elsa on like a solid blue background - they also have other Disney cards but they are like 2.5hrs of someone retelling the whole movie I believe, the single character ones are in shorter story form)

We have the big one, although might get a mini for their birthday, either would be fine, if you think a night light would be useful that's only available on the big one. And the app has a bunch of extra stuff, including white noise machines which come in handy!

Good luck

Op here. My daughter is 3.5 so sounds like it could be appropriate! Thanks for the feedback so far.

My 4 yo never uses ours but my nieces and nephews love theirs - it's probably my fault for not adopting it the right way. I lay in bed with my phone and play kid-appropriate podcasts to my 4 yo, but my siblings put their kids to bed with Yoto going, which is less demanding on them than what I am doing.

Doesn’t matter which model you get. For a younger kid I’d buy the “record your own” card and record yourself reading their favorite books. They will like that better than trying to follow an audio book.

Just start recording yourself on your phone when you read to them periodically. Then it is easy to transfer to Yoto. We also had grandparents, aunts and uncles send us recordings to load onto the Yoto. My 4 yo listens to the family recordings for hours.

We love our Yoto and someone posted this question recently on our neighborhood listserv and the many, many responses were all extremely positive about the Yoto. But most said kids get into it about 3.5-4 but not much earlier so when you mentioned toddler, not sure it will be the right age group. My 5 year old uses it daily but yes you do need to buy cards. We like the podcast and actually love the music but the cards are the stories and as your kid gets older you will definitely want those.

It is great for bedtime wind down, child doesn’t really need to be able to use it independently then you can just pop a card in when you leave. It has definitely helped us through bedtime transitions or tough times with bedtime. I guess it would potentially work for my 2.5 year old for this purpose if I used music instead of stories though the stories are more effective at getting my older one to really just listen.

5 year old uses it for quiet time (listens while playing), in the mornings if he wakes up early before his hatch turns to ok to get up color, he’ll pop a card in. We used to use it for bedtime but not anymore because he got so into the stories he would stay up to listen. We’ve brought it on car trips with headphones.

I bought it before mini was an option so can’t speak to that.

I’ve been curious about the yoto mini and would like feedback from those who have one.

How is the free content? Do I need to buy a ton of cards to make it with it (we already have a million books so the thought of additional cost doesn’t appeal). Can I rent cards anywhere?

Does your toddler use it independently? We are currently stuck sitting in her room as she falls asleep which could take 5 minutes or 50 minutes so part of the appeal is to get a yoto with the hope we can get out of the habit of sitting with her to fall asleep.

Should I get a regular or the mini? Seems like mini would do the trick plus it’s smaller for travel.

Any other feedback? TIA!