My daughter has always loved stories. If she had her way I would read to her for half the day and only take breaks to make up new stories to tell her. So when my husband saw a review of the Yoto Player in Time Magazine we knew it was pretty much the perfect gift for our daughter.

We ordered it as a Christmas gift and it’s really everything we hoped for and more. The Yoto Player is basically an audiobook player (or a “story robot” as my daughter calls it) that comes with cards you insert and then a story plays. It plugs into a charging station but can easily be picked up and walked around the house.

Here are a few things to know. First, I will say I highly recommend this product but I do think there are a few things to consider before you buy it. One is the cost. It costs $110 for the machine and then each story card ranges from 10 minutes to 3 hours long. At first the story card price seemed prohibitive but after realizing the majority of cards have at least 30 minutes of content and many cards can be purchased for a discount in sets I realized it wasn’t quite as expensive as I initially thought. The next thing to think about is does your kid really like listening to stories? If your child has never listened to audiobooks I would try out some free audiobooks on Spotify first to see if your kid is an audiobook-type kid.

Now what I love the most: My daughter can look through her story cards and independently put them in the machine and press play. Also worth noting, once you buy the story cards they automatically show up in your phone app so if you lose the physical cards it’s not the end of the world.

I also love that each card displays a unique image on the screen. It’s a fun way to distinguish stories and make it more visually exciting for kids.

But really most of all I love that it’s high quality stories (many of which I already know and love like the Winnie the Pooh books as well as tons of other exciting series) and my daughter gets excited to listen. It easily keeps her entertained in her room or at the table when I am trying to accomplish something else.

For parents of kids that love listening to stories, or parents that are looking for some screen-free entertainment, I highly recommend you check out this awesome little “story robot”!

Happy listening!

- Callie

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