Tonie Box & Tonies — German & English audiobooks for children

When I was a child, I listened to my audio cassettes over and over again. Well, cassettes were yesterday… today it’s the Tonies.

What are Tonie boxes and Tonies?

A company in Dusseldorf, Germany makes the Tonie boxes and Tonies. Tonie boxes and Tonies are two parts of an audio system for children. This audio system allows children to listen to a variety of well-known and classic audio plays and books.

The Tonie Box

The Tonie boxes looks like a dice-shaped box radio. But you cannot see many electronics. The only thing that reminds you of a radio are the speakers on the side the box. Otherwise the box is covered in a soft fabric. So even if it falls down…no problem. It is well cushioned! On top of the box you have a platform and two “bunny ears” sticking out. These ears are the volume buttons: push the bigger ear and the volume increases, push the smaller ear and the volume decreases. The rectangular platform on top is for the Tonies. 

The Tonies

Tonies are small, cute, hand-painted figurines that function like a key. All you need to do is place a Tonie on top of a Tonie box (all Tonies are magnetic so they won’t fall down). The box starts to download the audio content from the Toniecloud right away. Also, the box starts playing the content immediately, even when it is still downloading so there are no delays. For the downloading part though you need wifi. Once the contents are fully downloaded, the box stores the content and you can listen to it without wifi as well. Children can use their Tonies on a friend’s box too, thus sharing stories, music, and other contents.

The starter set always comes individual forms. For instance, we bought the pink Tonie box for our daughter which came with a Kreativ-Tonie.  There are more than 100 Tonies available. Some Tonies offer books and plays which include many of Germany’s children’s classics like Unser Sandmaennchen, Die kleine Hexe, Das Sams, Der kleine Wassermann, and Die drei Fragezeichen. Other Tonies hold songs and music such as Anne Kaffeekanne songs or songs from Die Sending mit der Maus. And yet others are more informative such as the Tonie that tells stories about Greek mythology.

Kreativ-Tonies

A really nice feature: Kreativ-Tonies. They come empty (i.e., not with a pre-recorded story or other content). Instead you can decide what you want to have on them. They allow you to record your own books or songs for up to 90 minutes! You can create the contents via the Tonie app or online at a laptop or desktop computer. Formats such as .mp3, .wav and .m4a are working on the Tonies. So you can create new stories with and/or for your children– in any language you want!

Why use Tonies?

This type of audio system provides native speaker input to your child and helps her develop listening skills in German and English (there are English Tonies too!). Also, the content focus helps to promote interest in the German language. It’s not just listening for the sake of learning. It’s fun because they listen to real stories which allows children to learn about the culture. In short, it allows children like my daughter who grows up with German as her minority language to participate and share a piece of German culture.