Yoto player for little book lovers

I know I said I’d do this soon and, surprise, I’ve actually caught up with my to-do list just once, so here I am. We’ve only had our Yoto for about a week, but I’m already in love with it. I don’t say that because I want you to buy one either – I do, and here’s a wee affiliate link for the player we have – but I’m telling you, you’ll want to regardless.

So I refused to buy a Yoto (or a Tonie for that matter) for years, because I figured it’d be ignored. I thought it was a newfangled, expensive cassette player and that my kids would quickly get bored of it. I thought I’d then either return it or have to punt it on Vinted, only to get practically nothing back for it.

I thought wrong. I bought our Yoto Mini the other day, because I was getting fed up with my bigger boys just playing screens all the time. Judge me if you like, but first trimesters are hard, and there were a lot of days when I’d just toss them the iPad while I lay on the sofa, feeling like a shell of myself.

The Yoto was bought out of semi-desperation, because my younger boy in particular would just zombie-fy entirely while playing the iPad. My sweet 3-year-old who normally loves to play trains or car wash and runs around like a crazy person would just sit, all mellow and quiet, and stare at this daft screen.

Well, since the Yoto has entered our lives, the iPad has been all but forgotten. In fact, as I write this, it’s sitting in my parents’ bookcase and we don’t even have it at our house. My eldest only uses it at night so far, but my 3-year-old carries it around everywhere. He hangs it off his bike (thanks to the handy little ‘adventure jacket’, which we have in a lovely soft yellow), he’ll sit with it on the sofa, he’ll pop it on top of his wee cozy coupe car… you get the idea, where he goes, the Yoto goes.

But that’s not actually my favourite effect it’s had. You see our wee guy has always been a shockingly bad sleeper. I mean, up 5-6 times per night for years. On top of that, he’s always been an early riser, we’re talking 5/6am. This has gotten way worse in recent weeks, as my husband now gets up at night and in the morning to let my pregnant self sleep. Well, with the Yoto and the help of a wee sleep story (we got The Forest of Sleep second-hand on Vinted) he has actually been sleeping okay for the past few nights.

The boys will literally settle down to sleep now, with the Yoto in between their beds, and you never hear another peep. Ok, until around midnight when our 3-year-old will still get up for a pee or to have water, but 1-2 wakes is nothing when you’ve been used to a bazillion.

As far as books go, we’ve so far got a range of things, from Peppa Pig to How to Train Your Dragon and Paddington Bear. My in-laws are getting our 6-year-old a Minecraft book for Christmas, and Winnie the Pooh for our 3-year-old. I’m going to be buying some more sleepy stores, obviously.

So that’s my raving review about the Yoto. We went for the Mini because I watched a video on Youtube that showed both, and noted that the cards kind of fall out of the bigger one. This wouldn’t have worked for our boys, as they like to carry it around. Neither my 3-year-old nor my 6-year-old find the buttons or cards hard to work at all. We love it so much, I’m planning on buying my twins one too for when they arrive. Anything to help our babies (and us) relax a little and possibly get a bit more sleep/chill time.

Oh, one more thing: I didn’t buy the official Yoto card binder because it seems overpriced. I’ve gone for a snazzy cheap version instead, which the good people of Amazon seem to like for their cards. Don’t get one that doesn’t have proper little pockets, as the cards will fly everywhere otherwise.

Also, if you’re nostalgic like me, I highly recommend getting some of the blank cards. You can add your own music or readings to them. In our case, I added some readings my grandparents made for our 6-year-old before he was born. I can’t listen to them yet, because my grandad has since passed away and it makes me tear up, but it makes for a wonderful memento if you’ve got young kids or are about to have a new baby. It’s also really useful if you have family who speak different languages, to let your children hear those.

PS: Not my picture, not my kids. Just a cute Unsplash one.