Homeschool routines – Brili Routines – Visual Timer Review

Lengthy review warning I searched for hours for an app that would do exactly what this app does and was ecstatic when I finally found this app. I spent hours and kept tweaking each child’s routine over the next few weeks. Btw, customer support from the developer has been amazing and super responsive to any questions and suggestions. I homeschool my 3 children, in 7th grade, 5th and 2nd. I’m not a very disciplined or structured when it comes to routines. I love flexibility. Our mornings were typically breakfast then get to school work and my kids didn’t fuss too much about the days’ work. But there wasn’t enough structure and I always felt unaccomplished because I didn’t do well with writing down what they did or needed to do so I always felt like there was still things they needed to do if they were playing. Like they needed to be in a textbook 8 hours/day. Brili has given much peace about our days. My kids have completed at least 2 activities before I’ve gotten out of bed! So, a typical child’s routine is set up by the parent. Within the routine (and several can be made for any given day), the parent sets/adds activities such as make bed, get dressed, eat breakfast. Each activity is given a reasonable amount of time to complete. My kids like to zoom through the ‘Morning’ routine to have extra play time before their ‘Begin school’ routine chimes at them at the set time. Each activity is assigned however many stars you want to give for that activity if completed. Rewards are talked about with child and parent creates that for the child to work towards. When the child completes an activity, they swipe that ‘card’ to the left on the device. If the child needs to push it off for later, swipe it to the right and the next activity appears. The whole routine can be paused but unfinished activities’ time will continue counting down. Or if they swipe the activity to the right to change up the order of activities (math, grammar, writing, reading, etc) then when they get back to that activity, many times the time has decreased to where they aren’t able to finish that subject/activity in the remaining time left. This part of the app is the only reason I didn’t give it 5stars. Something about this part always frustrate us and we just say oh well, no stars but finish work. Other than that, when I hear them playing mid morning, I can look at my device and see their routines live and see that they are actually on break which I created and have so many minutes left....which then allows me to relax and know I have time to shower or whatever! It’s helping us all manage our time so much better and actually be more productive without me feeling like I’m going in circles with what has or hasn’t been done. There’s many features to learn and it took a good while to work through it and several days/at least a week to tweak or change up a child’s routine so it wasn’t conflicting with another child’s need for my attention to certain subjects. I am definitely thankful for this app and I would say 5-6 weeks later, it was worth the $20! No day planner would’ve helped us all like this app has.
Review by everydayisahollyday on Brili Routines – Visual Timer.