Creative Tonie guide

How to add content to your first creative tonie

Once you have set your tonie box up it’s time for you to create and upload your own content to a creative Tonie and make the experience even more wonderful. This is the simple guide to using a creative Tonie.

This process is nowhere near as daunting as you think it will be and once you have got the hang of this you will be browsing the Tonie store for more creatives to play with.

You will need a laptop to add youtube audio content to a creative tonie

First things first – I use an iPhone on a day to day basis so I can use the app but also have access to a laptop which makes the process a lot easier as you can convert, download, save and locate files. (This is how to use audio from YouTube).

Once you set up your Tonie cloud account there are two different audio clips you can add to your creative to test it works. The Tonie song is an ear worm and you will be humming this to yourself for the next week or so!

The most obvious thing for me to do was browse YouTube for some of Arlo’s favourite songs. I also searched for stories and found a fabulous five minute video of Michael Rosen reading “We’re going on a bear hunt.”

I highly recommend choosing a favourite story so you can join in. Having the chance to do the actions and gestures whilst enjoying the audio without having to hold the book is a totally new immersive experience. As a side note check out our blog post about how we created our very own printed version of Bear Hunt to treasure forever

Click the share button on the YouTube video and copy the link into a file converter on a separate tab.

Once the converter has done its job it’s simple to download the audio file. Then make sure to save it on a laptop with a few clicks.

I repeated this with several other clips. I then had a little playlist of ten songs and stories ready to upload onto my creative tonie.

The next bit is really simple; you log in to the Tonie website, using the app you select audio files from your phone. From a laptop you can then drag and drop your audio files. You can rearrange the playing order before saving your changes. This is exactly how to add content to a creative tonie.

You can also upload voice notes you have recorded yourself (or asked a family member to record). ThIs can be done directly from an iPhone as these files do not need converting.

Now for the fun bit

Make sure the top of the box is clear of Tonies, and you are connected to WiFi. Press and hold an ear of your tonie box and it will flash blue.

Once the box has worked it’s magic the light stops flashing. You can pop your creative tonie on the box and play your audio!

This seems like a lengthy process but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s extremely simple. The only challenge is trying to manage the playlists when you suddenly have lots of ideas for content.

I have added theme tunes to some classic tv shows, and audio from the Ceebeebies bedtime stories. Plus I also included the baby shark song (which I may live to regret). I still have 38 minutes of space left on this one after adding ten different clips. This can be split in to 99 different clips or ‘chapters’

I have purchased several creative Tonies to add to our collection and fill these up with content to suit our play themes…. check out our winter themed play ideas and our Tuff Tray blog posts for inspiration if you’re looking for things to do at home.