Is the Yoto Really Worth It? An Honest Yoto Review
When my daughter was a newborn, a friend of mine alerted me to the Read Aloud Revival Podcast. Every new episode I was transformed into Sarah Mackenzie’s world, where mothers were reading stories to their children all the time. It sounded magical, but most importantly, it sounded do-able. Over the years we’ve built our home around books. Our homeschool is largely centered around reading aloud. We constantly have a family book going, individual read alouds, and personal books.
We use audiobooks for rest time, school, and the occasional tea-time chapter book. When I was sick with the flu, I relied heavily on audio books to get us through the school day.
For the last several months, I’ve seen the Yoto player circulating around various social media outlets. Several good friends own Yoto players for their children and love them. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.
What is Yoto?
The Yoto player is a screen-free, bluetooth speaker that plays audiobooks, podcasts, and music. You can play an audiobook from the yoto app on your phone, cast the book to the Yoto player through the app, or play a book with the Yoto cards.
What we love about the Yoto:
I love that my 3 year old is easily able to use the Yoto during rest time to choose a book.
The Yoto Mini is portable and easy to take along on car rides or flights.
The Yoto Mini can be used with headphones so the audiobook doesn’t disrupt others in public places.
The cards are cheaper than purchasing an audiobook on Amazon or Google playbooks.
The Yoto club is an affordable way to add books to your collection.
There is a long battery life, about 20 hours, that doesn’t need frequent charging. The Yoto player also works away from wifi, which is helpful when you’re away from home.
Yoto cards are a great gift idea for family and friends.
My single, worth every penny, perk to the Yoto player is the make your own (MYO) cards. MYO cards are programmable Yoto cards that you can add your own audiobooks to and use with the Yoto player. I like to add my daughter’s free reads for Ambleside online to the cards and change them once she’s finished with them. Most of the books come from librovox, which is free to use.
There are downsides to the Yoto: you must use their cards or purchase books for your phone app, which can be prohibitive for some. The player itself is fairly expensive, about $70 for the mini player and $100 for the larger player. Purchasing books can be added but you can also use free content from around the internet and reprogram the MYO cards. There are also Facebook groups where you can trade or buy cards from others for a discount.
Because both of my kids love the Yoto so much, we opted to purchase a second one so they can each use it during their independent rest time, trips, and long car rides this summer when we’re hiking more.
All in all, I’d say that the Yoto has been a valuable asset to our family and homeschool. Both my kids love listening to the stories and it’s been such a wonderful addition to our home.
Disclosure: Yoto sent me a player and cards for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.
