We are a book loving household and while we have actual books all through our home, we’re also voracious audiobook listeners. So, it’s time to introduce you to the number one way we’ve been able to reduce screentime and increase book time at home and on the road in our family—the Yoto Mini Player!

I’ve been waiting to write this review for awhile now because the Yoto Mini (spoiler–which we LOVE) has been out of stock, but they just released the 2024 version (it’s improved and has a former charging issue resolved internally vs our original players which need a special charging cable) so now is the time I get to post our official Yoto Mini review and sing the praises from the rooftops for something that has truly blown me away with how much our kids use it. These seriously get daily use in our home and on trips!

What is Yoto? Well, this is their website if you want to look around, but for us, it’s a way to deepen the reading culture in our home AND cut down on screentime without as much whining or “boredom.”

We first purchased our Yoto Minis in 2022 because we had two big road trips planned and we try to be screen free in the car (we don’t even have a DVD player or tablet for the kids actually) so I thought these were a great solution for us and they have been AMAZING! Our kids already loved listening to audiobooks on my phone that we can check out through our local library app but they often don’t agree on what to listen to and I wanted them to each have their own for more autonomy and variety.

Plus, I wanted to be able to listen to my own book on my own phone, right? Right.

We specifically chose the Yoto Mini because it was small, portable, and more affordable than some of the other kids audio players currently on the market. There are lots of similarities to the Tonie Box and the full size Yoto, but in my opinion, the Yoto mini is absolutely the way to go. Not only is it smaller and a little more affordable, it’s much more portable. It’s basically a new-fangled Walkman (although to be fair, I really was more in the Discman kid generation, though we did have a Walkman first when I was younger). The basic premise of the Yoto Mini is the same, except instead of cassettes or CDs, Yoto uses cards.

Our kids use their Yoto Minis in the car, as sound machines when we travel overnight, while having quiet time in their rooms, and even while doing chores around the house. But, if you have younger kids and plan to listen mostly at home, you might like the other options, but it’s no contest to me which one is the better fit for our kids and our household but if you feel strongly otherwise, feel free to share that in the comments!

But why not just get kids books? Well, to be fair, little kids aren’t able to read yet. But parents should be reading to them? Yes, but what if I’m driving? Or they are having quiet time in their room alone for rest time? So yes, kids SHOULD be reading with parents and reading actual books…but…they can also be doing this. In my opinion, a day with multiple kinds of reading in it is a very good day indeed, for kids and adults.

Researchers from UC Berkeley have found that both reading and listening stimulates the same cognitive and emotional areas. Moreover, psychologists have found that listening to audiobooks may even allow our imaginations to do a better job of visualizing the story than if we are reading it ourselves. Some kids, especially, are often auditory learners and can retain information exceptionally well after hearing it. Not to mention the entertainment value of a great reader/narrator with sound effects and background music! OR…listening ALONG with the actual book is a GREAT way to help learning readers practice!

And honestly, the main reason we went all in on the Yotos was to give our kids something fun to focus on in the car that didn’t involve a screen–success!

The Yoto Mini itself is usually priced at $69.99 but if you buy it at Target (affiliate link) you can use your 5% Redcard discount, as well as some other deals (like Target Circle bonuses or deals for $15 off a $75 toy purchase, for example).

Anyway, when it comes to actually using these on a daily basis, I spent a long time researching and shopping for the best Yoto setup and I’m happy to share all that leg work with you!

We are currently used wired headphones for each kid. These are the pink ones Emma liked. And these are the orange ones Will ended up with (the ones shown in these photos ended up breaking really quickly so I don’t recommend them.)

Each kid has a padded lunchbox to use as their case. I went with this because it was large enough to hold everything (player, headphones, cards, etc.) and was more affordable.

I chose Orange and pink, linked here for you, but there are other colors too. And certainly other lunch boxes that will work.

I added extra foam for padding and protecting by cutting up an old foam shipping envelope. My very sophisticated measuring process involved pressing the foam into the case, marking the corners and then cutting. You can see the shape and how it folds up to line the square case.

It stays really nicely without needing to be fastened in at all as long as you make sure it fits nice and snug.

I also added a sheet to the top and just slid it into the pocket.

We use a book (credit card wallet) for the cards. I started with a smaller one. My original one is no longer available but it’s similar to this which does come in pink and orange. But we upgraded to a larger one after a year of collecting cards and needing more space. Either, or even both, fit nicely in the lunchbox/case with their headphones, cords and their Yoto Mini, with an adventure jacket to help protect it a bit from bumps or drops.

And of course, because I was doing this for both kids, I went with two color schemes and make sure everything matched for each kid. Because of course I did.

Seriously, though, it helps to have everything match so everyone always knows which goes with which.

*I can tell you that it was a bit of extra work to make it all match with pink and orange items. The Adventure Jackets are the most limited in terms of colors as Target only carries two colors right now. There are others on Amazon and on the Yoto website. I was able to track down headphones, lunchboxes, and card wallets in a variety of colors but if you want to go with orange and pink, it will save you a bit of time to use these affiliate links. 🙂

The other thing we grabbed was a basic headphone splitter, so that if they did want to listen to the same card at once, we didn’t have to fight or take turns, they can just use the splitter to attach both headphones to one of their Yoto minis and then both listen together. It isn’t the prettiest solution, but it works just fine.

(However, I will say that one of Will’s headphones (his old ones from school) don’t work with the splitter and I don’t know why. The orange and pink ones linked in this post do work with it…but just be sure to test that before you head out on a trip!)

This setup got us through a 15-hour road trip and a 10-hour road trip with surprising success and little whining. (I like to make sure there are a few new fun (LONG!) cards before any long trips so they are excited to sit and listen.)

But honestly, they use them almost daily at home during rest time or when doing chores or just playing, especially building with Lego, coloring, or sorting Pokemon cards into new piles.

They listen in the car for shorter 1-hour or 3-hour drives. AND…they have totally replaced our need to travel with sound machines because they can double as that with some of the built-in extras available in the app. (We made a lullaby card and a pink noise card so we can even use them when we don’t have wifi)

I’ll be back with another post all about our favorite Yoto content and how we’ve built up a really big library for not a huge amount of money.

In the meantime, if you’re a friend who has been asking us about Yoto for awhile–finally–all the info and links are here for you! And if you have never heard of this but have a kid from age 3-15–I’d say absolutely look into the Yoto! Especially if you’re big into audiobooks, music, or trying to limit time on a phone or tablet. This would even be good for phone-challenged grandparents who love to listen to books or music I think–it’s that easy once it’s all setup!)

Are you an audiobook fan? A Yoto fan? I’d love to chat more so drop a comment with your thoughts!