We're getting older, but we're not teenagers yet!

Last Saturday I popped by at a party to check if everything was going according to plan! Just a few minutes after I arrived, I bumped into another well known client of ours. The conversation that followed made me realise how fast time flies by!

This client's daughter is now 12 years old, and yet I remember clearly her party when she turned 5! At that instant I felt a mixture of feelings... 'older' was one description that fitted quite well, although I prefer picturing myself as 'more mature'. 'Satisfied' and 'fulfilled' were some other words which sprang to mind. 

themed party at Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar

However, it mostly made me feel proud of our team's efforts. It's great to look back and remember the hundreds upon hundreds of children and the way we helped put a smile on their faces, on their special day. My appreciation goes to each and every animator and service provider who has pitched in throughout the years, and to our loyal clients, who push us to deliver even better services over the years.

We are now very much looking forward to November 2015 where we shall celebrate our own 10th birthday party!! 

...let's partytrap!!  

Disastrous dinners?

Ever had that dinner in which everything seems to go wrong? Food thrown on the floor, refusal to eat, tantrums and so on? I thinks this is something most parents have come to grips with at some point in their lives, and most agree, even though we cherish and look back on many past memories - dinner time is usually not one of them!

Child eating patterns can be of a great concern for parents and is one of the leading issues presenting in pediatric care, according to Faye Powell. Recent research has shown that " friendly interaction between mother and child instead of coercive strategies, like pressure and physical prompting, may encourage young children to try different foods.".

Having your child try new food and being greeted by tantrums and refusal to eat can test anyone's patience, however responding with aggressiveness will only help your child associate that food as something that is 'bad' and that is why there is so much pressure to eat it.

Some ideas that might help encourage your child to eat :

1. Let your child explore and experiment with the food
2. Modelling - try eating the food yourself first and emphasis how good it tastes, this will then make them curious and might help them want to try the food themselves.
3. Introduce the new food in a fun and creative way ex : yummy green trees (broccoli), crunchy carrots , juicy tomatoes ect.
4. Be patient! Children will test your patience and your boundaries, keep firm but also remember that as an adult there are foods that you yourself don't like and it's not the end of the world if your children don't like it either.

For more information on the study quoted above please click on this link!

Dr. Stephanie Bartolo
HCPC registered counselling psychologist (U.K)
Psychologist (under supervision) (Malta)

Dealing with children's seperation anxiety

Whether you are a parent, aunt, granny, granpa, teacher, carer or child, I'm sure we have all experienced or at least witnessed the heart-breaking scene of a child throwing a tantrum and refusing to leave his/her parent's side when being dropped off at school. It's also good to say that as well as being emotional, this scene can also get very tiring when it happens on a daily basis.

Seperation anxiety usually begins in infants between 4-6 months, then re-emerges at 18 months after the child has learnt to differentiate between the mother/father and other care-givers. As opposed to adults, young children do not have the capacity to understand that when you leave, you will be back. If young children have not developed what Piaget calls object constancy, there is a great chance that he/she believes you have disappeared forever. No wonder that poor little kid latches on so hard! There are a few ways in which you as a care-giver can help the child ease into this and reduce the anxiety

Peak-a-boo

Despite being a fun game, peak-a-boo serves a much deeper purpose. Playing peak-a-boo with your child allows you to develop a strong relationship in which the child experiences a few seconds of anxiety at the thought of losing you, but is relieved quickly when you show your face again. This eventually sends the message that even though you have disappeared, you do eventually come back.




Explain your day and why you are leaving
With most children, especially those over 3, it has found to be helpful if you explain why you are leaving and what most of your day involves for example explaining that you are going into your office, and then will write some things on paper ect. This helps the child to get a concrete idea of what you are doing. It is also vital to give the child a rough estimate as to what time you will pick him/her up. This gives them a goal to focus on.

Transitional objects

These are objects that the child picks as a form of 'security' such as blankets, dolls, pieces of your clothing, soft toys ect. This is their way of keeping a part of you with them and helps ease the transition of you not being there. Don't be too quick to remove these objects as it does help them to cope.


In summary, always remember that such tantrums all stem from anxiety and fear that you will abandon the child. The easiest thing is to reassure them that this is not the case, and that you will be back, even if you are leaving for a little while. Also, it helps to know that despite maybe feeling irritated by the tantrums, they ultimately occur because the child finds it unbearable to think of a world without you. So amidst all the frustration, there is a silver lining :)

All good things come to an end...

It is now the 13th of September, a new week, and yet one that is totally different. For a start for the past ten days my morning did not begin with hearing the voices of the kids saying "bongu" or "good morning, look what I've got today". I miss those days and would trade anything to have another week at the Summer Club.

I can only comment up to the date of performance week, since that was my last day before leaving, however what a journey it has been. It is safe to say that all the lessons, workshops, games, trials of patience and encouragement paid off. The children had a fantastic time, nearly as much as we did. Dress rehearsals are often misleading, many things crop up last minute, last minute fears, problems with hair and make-up and blanking out. Nearly most of these things dissipated on the day and the kids really shined, and I think I speak for everyone who worked at the Summer Club this year, that I've never been more proud of a group of young children.



I thoroughly hope you, but most especially the children have enjoyed their 8 weeks at the Summer Club, it has been an experience for all of us and will always cherish the special moments, the times when a child says something that is so unexpected and funny, he/she actually renders you speechless for a few seconds. These are the moments I will take with me.

The joys of Partytrapping

Lately I came across a quote from Pearl S. Buck, a renowned Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes winner, which caught my attention, it said: "to find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth". I would take that a step further and say that "one needs to do his or her best to find joy in... anything!". But of course a large chunk of our life revolves around work, so that is surely a great starting point to pursue happiness.

The past five years at Partytrap have been full of different experiences, but what (in my opinion) kept us going is the fact that we were lucky enough to find something which we really like doing, and turning it into a job. For some of us it's a full-time commitment, for others it's a pretty demanding part-time work, but although all of us have our weak moments, I'm quite sure that we rarely 'dread' going to work.

A couple of weeks ago we organised a summer get-together - a BBQ at the beach to kind of put us all in the mood for this 'holiday season'. It was purely a social event, but what did we end up doing? Yes... 'work'! We went through the songs and dances we perform with children, we staged (for the thousandth time) Turu's scripted sketch, and most of all we enjoyed ourselves. 

It's things like these which remind me of the importance of putting enjoyment at the forefront of anything we do. Who said work should be boring? Who said 'play' is a thing we should do only in our 'free time'? (click here for a really inspiring clip on the evolution of play). At Partytrap we have all of these things in common, and especially: we love to have fun, and we derive enjoyment from entertaining others. Keep it up Partytrappers ;)

Partytrappers and friends (some of us couldn't make it on this occasion)

Welcome to our blog :)

For a long time we have felt that even though at Partytrap, interacting with people is key, we wanted to further this into new directions and engage with people on different levels. Welcome to the Partytrapper's Blog. I hope that this page will be both informative, fun, friendly to use and interesting.

As an animator, it is often frustrating going home after a party or event; children full of energy and bursting with smiling faces, make us feel young again and sometimes we really forget that we would be at work! As a team we regularly meet up and the common pastime among us animators is reminiscing on the fun we would have had with the children, their energy and enthusiasm as well as the funny moments that are found in any good event. I look forward to being able to blog about these moments, the exciting things that happen and of course about the warmth a child can bring to any one that crosses his/her path.

Also watch out for blogs containing delicious recipes we would have tried out, cool craft ideas and practical tips on ways of enhancing creativity and confidence in your children :)