The Chameleon Reader is perfect for encouraging screen free, independent play. You can turn your child's favourite books into audio books for them to enjoy!
We love using it for rest and down time at home, on long car rides and creating fun activities with to make learning a little more fun! Children love to record and listen to their own voices. We often do this to practice their sight words.
If I am trying to cook dinner and can't read at the time they have asked me to they will often sit in the kitchen with me and we listen to the stories together. It doesn't replace reading and connecting with your children but there are still alot of benefits that they will gain from using it.
We have stories read by their Great Grandparents, Grandparents Aunty and of coure ourselves (parents). It's so special to be able to record their favourite stories with their favourite people.
Once you wrap your head around the amazing technology its really easy to record and use!
Turning any book into an Audio book with the Chameleon Reader
How to make an Audio Book
Firstly record your audio to the chameleon stickers your audio will play from the Chameleon Reader when it touches the chameleon sticker in your books.
You can program different languages or people to different colours on the palette sticker. You can also set up library stickers which will play the whole book through rather than tapping each individual sticker.
There is no right or wrong way as to how to use your Chameleon Reader. You can get as creative as you like by making story books, music books, libraries of favourite stories for listening on the go, flashcards and so much more.
We have a blog 10 Creative ways to use your Chameleon Reader if you'd like even more fun ways!
Recording audio with loved ones far away
If you have family that live overseas or different states you can easily record new books by calling them on FaceTime to read a book and record them. This way they can see the words of the book easily. Keep scrolling below for more explaination as to how to do this and record onto the Chameleon Reader.
How to record their voice when they live far away
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Record the audio played from your mobile (video chat or voice messages) using Chameleon Reader.
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Record using their phone and send MP3 files to you. There are many MP3 recorders in APP Store / Google Play. You need to rename files according to the printed number on the stickers and transfer them to the reader with a computer - see video tutorial below.
Transfering MP3 from Computer
See the video below for a quick look at how easy it is to swap between languages and people recorded to different colours.
Using the Chameleon Reader with Multilingual families
The Chameleon Reader is a great tool to gain exposure to other languages and support Multilingul children. You can use the stickers on books, flashcards, photo albums and even items around the home. The opportunities are endless!
You can add up to 4 audio tracks per sticker. For example you could play the same audio in English, French, Chinese and Japenese or use the same feature to record different members of your family eg. Mum, Dad, Uncle and Grandma or do a bit of both, its up to you!
You can record your voice and your child's voice to compare and model the pronunciation of words and easily swap between the audio files.
It's easy to re record over the audio sticker if you are working on different words of phrases.
Making Multilingual Flashcards
Using the Chameleon Reader Out & About
You can use the Chameleon Reader as a portable media player so children can access their stories and music anytime without having the books and chameleon stickers the audio was recorded to. Simply tap and play stories and music from the Library and Music cards.
When our children were younger and couldn't read I took photos of the covers of their favourite books we had already recorded and printed them out and put them in a little 6 x 4 photo album and cut up a library card to slot inside each page so they could tap and listen seeing the cover of their favourite stories. You could also draw your own pictures on the libary card instead.
If you are taking it to a cafe, in the car, on a plane or have multiple readers/childen listening at the same time I would reccommend plugging in a set of headphones to the side. It is a standard headphone jack.
We like keep their Chameleon Readers in these cases with their headphones and library cards so we have all the pieces together and can easily move them around when travelling.
Adding Music to your Chameleon Reader
We've had a few people ask for more in depth instructions as to how to upload music to the Chameleon Reader so we have made this guide with pictures to help you through the process. Please note: You will need to have a file of the song it cannot be a subscription service such as Spotify.
Download instructions | How to export MP3 from Music (iTunes) & Adding MP3 Files to Chameleon Reader
Backing up, restoring & using multiple Chameleon Readers
Using multiple Chameleon Readers
We also sell Additional Chameleon Readers so you can duplicate a Chameleon Reader audio files. This is often useful if you have multiple children and would like them to have access the the same stories on different readers.
For example we often use ours in the car on long drives and our children want to listen to different stories and songs.
You can do this easily by following the steps in the video below. We suggest marking one device and recording to the master to avoid confusion.
Eg. Record to master reader and copy to additional readers. The readers will then work in the same way and read the same chameleon stickers on your already recorded books and playlists.
Backing up and restoring audio files
Since you have put so much effort into recording your book collection we reccommend backing up your audio files to a computer so that if you ever misplace the Chameleon reader you can restore the files back onto another Chameleon Reader to continue using them without having to record them all again.
We have also backed up audio files of Great Grandparents as we know they will be a special memory to our family for many years to come that aren't able to be re recorded.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can you re record if you make a mistake?
A: Yes! It's easy. Simply re record like you would the first time you record. After you adjust it will automatically update it in any playlists it is a part of.
Q: How do you swap between languages and people?
A: You record each person or language to a different colour and simply tap the colour palette sticker to swap between them. We put this onto the front of books recorded with multiple people.
Q: How do you add audio from other places for music or audio files from family far away?
A: See the video below which shows you how to transfer them to the Chameleon Reader.
If you have anymore questions please don't hesitate to contact us! We are always more than happy to help :)