Before our little one was born, Jasmine’s uncle bought a card-reading speaker for our older child so she could listen to songs.
After the baby arrived, the older sister basically handed that speaker down to her. Every night, we used the children’s songs on loop to help her fall asleep. Over time, she quietly picked up a few nursery rhymes of her own. The first one she really learned was Little Donkey, although her version came out a bit funny, especially the lines about being "in a big hurry" and falling flat on her face.
Later, the old card speaker broke. At bedtime, I went back to telling stories myself—Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, and whatever else came to mind. After that, I bought another card speaker online, this time with Bluetooth.
That turned out to be far more practical than I expected. Once it could connect to a phone, it became much easier to use. I installed the Ximalaya app, which has plenty of children’s audio programs and story content. Her favorite was a bedtime storytelling program called Goodnight Mom Tells Stories. Every night, we would play a few stories for her, and she would usually drift off after listening for a while. It worked much better than me talking until my throat felt dry.
At one point, I came across a rabbit-shaped early-learning story machine online and thought it might be fun to get one for her. My assumption was simple: the Bluetooth speaker still wasn’t especially easy for a small child to operate on her own, while a dedicated story machine sounded like something she could use more independently.
So during this year’s 618 shopping sale, I finally bought the rabbit-shaped one for her. She was thrilled when it arrived and wouldn’t let anyone else touch it. But she didn’t actually open it and start using it until that evening.
After a few days, I realized it wasn’t really better than the Bluetooth speaker. It just had a few extra buttons and separated things into categories like "children’s songs," "stories," and "character." The design was definitely cuter, but in terms of function, the Bluetooth speaker already did the same job.
In the end, it felt like a Bluetooth speaker wrapped in a rabbit shell—with a much higher price tag.
If value for money matters, a Bluetooth card speaker that can play music and stories is enough. There’s really no need to spend extra on a cute-looking story machine. Of course, whether a child likes one more than the other is a different matter.