Are you looking for more screen free solutions for your kids to entertain themselves with? Search no longer! We came across this amazing thing, called the Chameleon Reader, on Instagram. It is a magical pen where you can DIY audiobooks, interactive posters, learning your child more languages and more! It also brings relatives closer to each other, in these times of quarantaine. This really is a perfect solution for kids and purposeful parents who want to spend more family time together, and who have learning through play as a big priority!
What’s included with the Chameleon Reader?
To give the right impression of everything that’s included with the Chameleon Reader, i’ve made a handy list
- Chameleon Reader pen
- USB cable (you can also charge the batteries with it, and put files on the pen)
Hallelujah! Finally a solution to never have to change batteries for the thousands time (really good for the environment this way) - 5000 (!) audio stickers
- 7 controller bookmarks
- 1 little book for all your audio + music cards
- Music cards
- Audio cards
- User Guide
DIY countless audiobooks
With the Chameleon Reader you can make ANY book an audio book. Yep, you’ve read that right! You don’t have to buy special books that are compatible to the brand, like lots of different ‘audio pens’ are. But now the Chameleon Reader is revolutionizing the way your child reads audiobooks. You can change any book into an audio book! Whoop whoop
With the genius stickers that come with the Chameleon Reader you can record anything. You can even sing a song if you want to. This is how it works:
- stick a green Chameleon sticker on the page
- grab the Chameleon Reader pen + Chameleon bookmark
- hit the record button on the Chameleon bookmark
- press on the Chameleon sticker you just placed on the page
- record your page
- press the Chameleon stickers againg
- you’re done!
From now on, every time you press that green little Chameleon sticker, you will hear what ever you recorded. You can place a sticker on every page and record, or (like we did) put a sticker per chapter.
Bring relatives closer home with the Chameleon Reader
What I think is one of the greatest things about this Chameleon Reader, is the fact that you also hear audio from all your child’s loved once, on one pen. For example, you can have the grandparents read their favorite childrensbook, have daddy translate and read a story in his own language (in our case, Albanian). Or a sweet aunty that wants to just record a message for your child and send it to you. A Happy Birthday song or a beautiful song played on the piano. The possibilities are endless!
Lots of children are having their birthday while being in quarantine these weird times we’re living in right now. There is almost no way to feel connected to friends and family and have people over for a great party. But the Chameleon Reader brings them closer to you.
You can record and put ANY audio file on the Chameleon Reader. Any audio file you can think of. In our case, the grandparents of our children can record something while being thousands of miles away, and we can put it into the Chameleon pen, in two easy steps.
A great solutions for sick children or parents
With our youngest daughter we have had lots of health issues, and lots of times she ended up in the hospital for days and weeks at a time. How wonderful is it to have a magical pen with you (the Chameleon Reader of course). This way your child can read countless books from home, and even hear their big brothers and sisters read stories aloud to them. Because we had to stay in isolation lots of times, we couldn’t have any of our family come by. Not even daddy or her brother and sisters. It is such a light in the dark and scary times in the hospital, to have daddy read a bedtime story to you. Or have grandpa or grandma record something sweet to listen to over and over again. The Chameleon Reader brings our normal family life closer to the hospital bed, and this way sick children can feel a little more outside of their four hospital walls.
You would never want to think about this. But there are children that are losing their parents. How beautiful would it be if you had books and stories recorded by a parent who is fighting some horrible sickness (and maybe even died from it). This will make your Chameleon Reader worth way more than gold. A treasure to keep sake for ethernity.
Raising your children in more languages
But the one reason I fell in love with the Chameleon Reader in the first place, was the option to help us raise our children in three different languages. With the special four colored stickers you can record up to four different languages on just one sticker. You first have to put the ‘bi-langual’ sticker on the cover of the book, so your kids will know this is a special book.
This way we have recored our Toddler Bible in three languages (Dutch and English by mommy, and Albanian by daddy) and for lots of the stories I’ve recorded a song that fits the bible story. This way our children learn three languages in a playful and fun way, by hearing it over and over again. We recorded Dutch on the green ‘button’, English on the yellow one, Albanian on the blue ‘button’ and the songs on the red part of the Chameleon sticker.
DIY – bi-langual dictonary
I’ve made our own little bi-langual dictionary while making our learning posters. I’ve searched for images (of course copywrite free) that represent the most common things our kids deal with everyday. Like numbers, colors, fruit, veggies, shapes and lots more.
Then I printed them out, laminated all the pages with our laminator. On these laminated pages I put a four colored Chameleon sticker next to every image and recorded all the images in four languages.
This way our four children can learn and play with the Chameleon Reader, do quizzes and explore other languages. And whenever you feel like they totally know one language (like English) and you want to introduce them to another languages, you can just overwrite the English parts, you’ve recorded before.
A great tool for kids with language difficulties
The Chameleon Reader is also a great tool for children who need more challenging tasks (like our highly gifted children) but also works amazing with kids that are more challenged with language in the first place. You can also record the words in different ways.
For example, you will use the green Chameleon to say the word in normal English – apple tree. Than you record on the yellow part the word very slowly ‘aaaa – pple – treeeeee’ You can use the blue part to have the child record and repeat the word themselves slowly (aaaa – pple – treeeeee) and use the red part to record the word on a normal tempo (apple tree).
After this the child can listen to himself and see if it sounds anything like the parent (or teacher) recorded it. This is also a great way to learn a totally new languages. Use the first part to say the word, the second part to slowly say the word, and have the child record it on the other two stickers.
Save music player for kids
The Chameleon Reader is not just for audiobooks. You can also put MP3 files on the pen and create your own music library. Our kids really love this part of the pen! I’ve put on the new songs of Frozen ll on the Chameleon Reader. And for the youngest two kids I’ve put some Cocomelon videos (transfered to MP3) on the pen. Now we can listen the whole day to baby shark, hahaha.
Luckily for us parents, you can also use headphones with the Chameleon Reader, so you don’t have to listen to all the audio books and songs that the kids are playing out loud. Really awesome! And even our youngest daughter (2 year old) knows exactly how to use the Music Library.
Take up to 400 ‘books’ with your where ever you go
Always have a shortage of luggage space? Or can you only fit 6 books into the backpack of your child, when you go out for a day? Yes, I totally understand your problem. With four kids there is never enough space to bring enough books with us. And they are just heavy as hell. How great is it we can just record the books and bring the little book with the Audio Library with us.
You can easily put all the books you want into your book library and take up to 400 books with you where ever you go. If you’re going by bus, train or an a road trip. Your child can listen to hours of audiobooks with the audio cards in the booklet that keeps these cards protected.
The Chameleon Reader, a musthave for every parent
If you haven’t noticed yet, I am really excited about the Chameleon Reader. I just don’t know why I didn’t discover this amazing piece earlier on. And why not more people know about it. It really has so many learning options, it lets your child discover by themselves and it give parents the tools to raise their kids with limited (or no) screen time! How amazing is that?
Would you like to order the Chameleon Reader, you can easily do so by going to their online store.
Want to see the Chameleon Reader in action? Look it up in our Instagram ‘Books’ highlight on Instagram and see for yourself why you also need one!