The best Tonies for celebrating Black History Month

Not only will they learn about cultures, religions and traditions, but it will also let you have chats with them about race, equality and diversity. Our tonies® pals have lots of great tips for using their Tonieboxes and Tonies to keep learning this month. Read on for more.

Black British Tales

Meet CJ. She's brand new to our Tonie crew and here to explore some brilliant Black British Tales with her family and yours. This Tonie is packed full of fascinating facts, like how Notting Hill Carnival began, why the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush was so inspiring, and more on culture, music and sport. AND it's narrated by the talented Taiya Samuel from the BBC's JoJo and Gran Gran.

To celebrate this special arrival, we’ve got a FREE taster chapter from the Black British Tales Tonie for you to try. It’s available to assign on your Creative-Tonie now. 

Let’s hear why Basma and her girls like listening to this Tonie:

“I love that my girls can learn the stories that I grew up listening to with my family! CJ, the little girl on the Tonie, reminds me of my daughters, always wanting to find out fun facts about their history. They’re really enjoying going on these adventures with her."

West African Tales

Our clever griot from West Africa, Yande, shares her traditional folk tales that have been passed down through many generations of griots. Story-loving listeners can jump into an animal adventure with mischievous and clever leopards, tortoises and chameleons. They’ll be encouraged to interact with the West African Tales Tonie by creating their own sound effects annnnnd there’s a fun quiz at the end, so make sure their ears are wide open!

Kojo and his girls tell us why this Tonie is their favourite:

“I love that the West African Tales Tonie gives my children the resources to learn stories from our history. These folk tales share life lessons like right vs wrong and keeping promises. The girls really love The Tortoise story.”

Creative-Tonies

We’re all about celebrating those little (and big!) differences that make us all unique. We also know that it’s powerful for children, and adults, to see themselves represented. It starts with our family of Creative-Tonies which come in different skin tones. And then with the help of uniforms, our Creative-Tonies have roles like doctors, firefighters and superheroes to explore different worlds, creating a family with which every child can identify.  

You can also record your own stories, songs and messages for their Creative-Tonies. It’s easy-peasy on the mytonies app and the possibilities are endless. From language lessons to traditional tales, it’s a great way of creating strong connections with family roots and bringing history alive for kiddos.

Take a look at the personal touch Amina adds to her boys’ Creative-Tonie:

“I’ve recorded songs and stories in my native Yoruba language onto my boy’s Creative-Tonie. We do this to help with their language development and to weave together culture, education and fun. With each Yoruba song and story, we embrace our heritage and create memories that will last a lifetime."

Free Black History Month audio for our tonies® pals

We’ve got more FREE content about Black history, available to assign to your Creative-Tonie riiiight now. Take a peek…

Who Do I See in the Mirror Story

This simple yet powerful book is about a little girl who goes on a journey to discover what makes her special. We love the strong message at the end that tells little ones it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Not to mention, it’s been voted one of the best kid’s books that celebrate diversity by Hello Magazine and The Independent. It’s a gooden!

Black History is Our History Poem

This memorable poem is about some of the great people who have helped to change and shape our world. If you listen carefully, you might just recognise some of the names! With this poem, little ears will be all set to learn fun facts, important lessons and why Black History Month is so important.

We’ve been working hard designing Tonies that encourage your children to be curious and learn more about the world around them, so we hope you loooooove some of these amazing characters, not just for October, but all year round. 

We know we’ve got more work to do, we’ve got big plans and together with our team, we’re going to continue making sure we’re always getting better. We want to do everything we can to represent real-life in our tonies® world.