While shopping for my favorite bag company I was perusing some small retailers for baby stuff. After joining the email list, I kept getting emails from them and one product I kept seeing in these emails was there these little figures called “Tonies”. After a few emails curiosity got the better of me and I clicked the little figures to see what they were all about. Little did I know that I was about to find the best screen free entertainment for kids and toddlers. While I am all good with screen time, I still love a great alternative.
Turns out these figures are accessories for a Tonie Box.
What is a Tonie Box?
It is a Tonie Box is a small wireless speaker that is made for children. They are designed so that the child has full control of the box. Easy to navigate, tap the sides to change tracks, the small and large triangles turn it on and control volume and you choose what you want to listen to by putting your favorite characters on the top (its magnetic), it’s very intuitive. Each figure contains a collection of songs, stories or both that relate to the figure. They have all sorts of Tonies from all of your favorite Disney Classics to tons of the awesome children’s books. There is something for every kid and spans a wide range of ages.
Here is a good little overview that gives you a good visual.
Our Experience
The more I looked into it the more I was sold so for Christmas last year I splurged and get my little a purple Tonie Box and 7 Tonies, which turned into 10 by the time Christmas came around. Seriously these little buggers are addicting! As the photo below will illustrate this is out collection less than a year later lol.
My little absolutely loves this thing! It has become part of our nightly routine. She especially loves the ones with songs and even more so the Disney ones. While the recommended age is 3, she got hers at 2 and had no issues learning to navigate it and switch the characters. She will put on one and dance around then switch to another and dance around. We have also incorporated the new sleepy themed Tonies and some of the stories at bedtime to offer an alternative to the TV.
More Experiences with the Tonie Box
I loved this Tonie box so much that I got one for my nephews to share. They were 2 and 5 at the time. Both of them really took to it, especially the 5-year-old. He loved it so much he had a hard time sharing it with his brother, Mom ended up getting a second one for them so they wouldn’t have to share. They both love to listen to the stories, and she loves putting them to bed with a story each night that she doesn’t always have to read herself. It was awesome to see how much the older boy loved it, I knew that I got a toy that would last a long time for all of the kids.
Useful Information
Wi-Fi Notes
The Tonie box can be a little finicky to set up. When setting up my daughters, I followed the steps and it went perfectly. I didn’t have as much luck with my nephews, I had to reset it a couple times and then finally learned that it was an internet issue. So if you are having issues check 2 things, what internet connection are you using. The Tonie box works on the lower frequency Wi-Fi. Most of the companies give you both the low and high but some people (like my friend) only bother to set up the low one (side note, better to have them both things like this, appliances, printers and such should also be on the lower frequency). Make sure you are connecting to that one. Once we did this with my friends it worked perfectly.
Also don’t use your phone hotspot. While the Tonie box can work without Wi-Fi it does need to be connected most of the time so make sure it’s your home Wi-fi
If you want to use the Tonie box offline make sure the Tonies are “synced” when you get a new Tonie leave it on the box until you hear a notification sound, that is how you know its fully connected.
Disney Notes
While we love the Disney Tonies, it is good to know that not all of them have the original music and voices. Some kids (and parents) may not notice but we sure did. Just check the reviews and listen to the samples. Ones we know for sure is Tiana (Princess and the Frog) does not have any of the original music at all. It’s just music that is inspired by the movie. This one was out most disappointing. Rapunzel (Tangled) has a couple of original songs but not original artists and it has one random song that is actually sung by Cinderella that the reviews complain about. Moana and Cars have original songs but not original artists. The Frozen ones, Stitch and Encanto all have the original songs.
If you are ready to join the craze head over to the website and build you own bundle.
