I’m gonna do one of those posts. You know those posts. The “try this!” “Three Easy Steps!” posts. I don’t typically write like this, but I have been sitting on this information for months and letting this and that get in the way of sharing it. No more. Today is the day.

First, you have to know that involved parents have been hassled for years now about screentime. Many companies have found a way to capitalize on this guilt most parents have about both excessive screens and not entertaining their children every waking minute. It is important to include both of these guilt-trips together, because one independent of the other would not be profitable for companies peddling screen-free entertainment for children.

If you have children and are on social media at all, you’ve seen these advertisements for Yoto Player, Tonie, or Storypod. All of these things basically offer the same thing: wi-fi free, screen-free audio entertainment. I happened to catch the Storypod on sale about two years ago and bought it because my children are wild and I could just imagine what would happen to the cards that go with the Yoto player or the hard plastic figurines that go with the Tonie.

I will describe the Storypod for a bit in case you’re unfamiliar, because the concept is pretty neat. A Storypod is a screen-free, interactive audio learning system designed for young children (typically ages 0-6) that uses a combination of physical “Crafties” (small, tactile objects) and audio content to provide engaging learning experiences through listening, with features like interactive buttons, stories, songs, and trivia questions, all aimed at promoting developmental skills without screen time. (Thank you AI for the description.) It is very kid-friendly and one of our favorite features from the beginning has been the Craftie that comes with the Storypod which allows us to record our own stories and songs for the kids using the Storypod app. Unfortunately, the recorder does not allow pausing audio recordings. I don’t believe I need to explain how frustrating that is for parents of young children who are frequently interrupted. Also, each soft “Craftie” costs around $20 and we’re library people if you know what I mean.

We have overall enjoyed our Storypods and still use them frequently, but aren’t willing to continuously purchase new content, have difficulty recording new content, and it doesn’t connect via bluetooth. Naturally, that hinders us from keeping it fresh for the kids. We also weren’t able to afford one for our oldest, who absolutely loves audiobooks.

Well, one day, my husband pointed out the mini speaker we had bought for $20 has an SD card slot. “We could put music on a SD card for the kids,” he mused. Before long we figured out that we could record stories on the SD card using my phone’s built-in voice recorder and I started recording stories and songs for my eldest.

Today, I want to walk you through the simple process of making your own!

First, purchase a speaker with an SD card. The one we love for ease-of-use, portability, and bluetooth features is the one I linked above: Anker Soundcore Mini.

Next, make sure you have some mini SD cards. These ones will do: 2 Pack SD Card 32GB.

Open up your phone to the Voice Recording app and do your thing! Sing a lullaby, spin a yarn, tell a joke, or read one of your kid’s favorite books.

Once you’re done, email the file to yourself so you can put the mp3 on the SD card from your computer. If your voice recording app saves files to mp3 automatically, you’re smarter than me because you don’t have an iPhone. For iPhone users, recordings are m4a files that needed to be converted to mp3 to work on the speaker. Use the link provided to download a Windows app that we use.

To put the file on your micro SD card, an external card reader may be necessary. This one looks good: SmartQ C368 USB 3.0 Card Reader. Save the file to the card and pop it into your speaker. Press the mode button until it starts playing your content and enjoy cringing at the sound of your own voice!

Well, I am not very good at these types of posts. But if you keep looking at these ads and thinking, “Man, I wish I could afford that!” consider that I own one of those fancy things and we use our $30 homemade “Storypod” more than the expensive one! We have the option of using bluetooth and streaming, or pre-recorded content on the SD card. Simply that flexibility has made it our go-to for quiet time or bedtime.

You still have time to buy a speaker, record some treasured lullabies and favorite stories, and gift it for Christmas this year.

Happy recording!