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Ok maybe you might know some of these but if you’re new to having a Yoto Player you might not! Here are some tips I’ve learned along the way, we’ve had ours since 2021. I remember working extra babysitting gigs because I told my husband this screen free “toy”, if you will, would be used daily. And with a grin on my face I’m so glad it is!!
Audiobooks count so don’t feel bad if your budding readers listen to audiobooks while following along in the book, it’s actually super helpful and a great thing to do especially in your homeschool!
Tips for using your Yoto Player
- Make Your Own or MYO cards are extremely versatile, they can be used over and over again. You can simply take a book off and put a new book on with an easy tap of your phone to the card. If you want to add covers onto the stickers to make them semi permanent book cards you can use this sticker paper and a template on canva to print your own.
I’ve actually scored a lot of audiobooks cheaply at library sales on CDs and I was able to rip them to my computer using this and then convert them to MP4 just google a free converter.
- You can put your kiddos favorite podcasts on a MYO card, just simply copy the RSS link into the add podcast section of the app or website and tap a card to add it on with your phone. If you can’t find the RSS feed, Yoto has been adding podcasts to the MYO section of their website under podcasts so check there too!
- Essentially you don’t actually need any cards once you buy a player because the welcome card they all come with is a MYO card. Simply delete the welcome instructions off the card through the app or site then add whatever audiobook from your library you want. You can do this over and over again too, which is great if you are on a tight budget
Now I do purchase cards because one they are super easy for my toddlers and younger kiddos to use themselves and two you get the digital version when you buy the cards anyway added right to your yoto library, I prefer buying physical things.
- Speaking of tight budgets you don’t need to purchase multiple cards of the same book. If two children both want to listen to the same card at the same time (they could listen on one player too but if its quiet time) you can either play it on their player from your app on your phone or you can quickly add it to a MYO card with just a tap of your phone. Super simple.
- There is another app (not your regular Yoto App) thats actually more of a website but add it to your homescreen and it’s called “Yoto Space” which has a ton of audiobook recordings in the public domain people add. This is super helpful for our homeschool and they’re free so it saves money too. Now I like using the libby and hoopla apps for listening to audiobooks together but Yoto Space saves time when I don’t want to give my children my phone but they might need to read something for our Homeschool lessons.
- Everything is screen free for the kiddos and you don’t need to use wifi but you can also use your app to control anything like how much time they can listen for with sleep timers, control the volume of the players and headphone volumes locked. Actually a lot more so I’m comfortable handing a Yoto player to my younger kiddos and I know they can’t turn it all the way up to the max level with the setting I have in place.
- The bigger players can be turned into a nightlight, and sleep radio and I LOVE THAT. There goes your sound machine!
- Yoto makes tons of free content, we were big yoto daily fans but I listen together just to be on the safe side but my kiddos love it especially on Fridays! The radio and podcasts can be downloaded for offline play if you don’t put them on cards.
Ok theres a lot of hidden gems about this player. Now if you’re looking for a full list of favorite cards you can find them here and if you’re planning on getting a Yoto player check out the deals they are currently having!!
Our top favorite cards would have to be right now:
Narnia series
Frog and Toad
Winnie The Pooh
And of course the Make Your Own cards!