A Yoto Gift Idea: Make the First Card Grandma's

A new Yoto player gets a lot of love in its first week. Kids go through the cards they've got, then go through them again, and by January they know every one by heart.

Here's an idea for one of those first cards. Instead of another store-bought story, make it a bedtime story read by Grandma. Or Grandpa, or the aunt who does all the voices. It costs nothing, and it's the card that's still in rotation long after the others have been shelved.

Why it works so well as a first card

Little kids are wired for familiar voices. A story in a voice they know feels different from one read by a stranger, even a very good stranger. When the grandparent lives far away, it's also a way for them to be part of bedtime on a regular night, not just on video calls.

And there's a quieter reason. Recordings like this become keepsakes. The card might get reused one day, but the recording stays on your phone. Plenty of grown-ups would give a lot to hear their own grandmother read them a story again.

How to set it up

The whole thing takes about ten minutes of your time, spread over a week or two.

1. Create the story in Little Vox. Give it a title, pick who's reading, and the app makes a link.
2. Text the link to Grandma. She taps it and a recording page opens in her phone's browser. There's nothing to download and no account to make. If she opens it from inside Facebook or WhatsApp and it won't record, she just needs to open it in Safari or Chrome instead.
3. She reads, whenever suits her. She can pause, stop for the night, and pick up again the next day. The link stays open for 7 days.
4. It comes back to your app. Listen to it first if you like, then tap Send to Yoto. It goes into your Yoto library as a Make Your Own playlist.
5. Link it to a blank card. In the Yoto app, open the playlist and choose Link to a card. You can do this with just your phone by holding the card near the top of it, so the player can stay wrapped until the big day.

Give yourself some slack on timing

Send the link at least a week before you need it, and two is better. Grandma may want a couple of tries at it, and the busiest weeks of the year are not when anyone has a quiet hour to read aloud. If she's not a texter, call her first so she knows the message is coming and it's really from you.

What she could read

Anything she'd read to them in person works. A few ideas that fit the season:

• The Velveteen Rabbit. It opens on Christmas morning, with the rabbit sitting in the top of the boy's stocking. It's short enough to read in one go.
• A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. It only takes a few minutes, and almost everyone knows how it goes.
• The book from your own childhood. If there's a battered copy of something on her shelf that she used to read to you, that's the one.
• A family story. The year the tree fell over. The snow day when you were six. Nobody else can tell those.

If your family celebrates something other than Christmas, the same idea fits Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid or a birthday. The point is the voice, not the holiday.

No Yoto in the house yet?

You don't need one to start. The recording is an ordinary audio file that plays on any phone. If you are thinking about getting one, Yoto's players and blank cards are here, and the recording will be waiting in your app when it arrives.