Saturday 12 November 2011

PERFORM parties - Review

Hi

Last Sunday instead of going to church, we headed off for a day out, that we'd been invited to, hosted by PERFORM

This is what part of the invitation said:
Perform is a unique drama school for children, using a mix of drama, dance and singing specially formulated with a focus on child development to bring out every child's true potential, so we would love you to come along and see what Perform is all about.

The Perform Parties are high energy, fun and totally infectious, children just can't resist joining in all the activities: http://www.perform.org.uk/parties.html
 
With Daddy being a former Actor we could not resist this particular event.  As I have not been part of the "community" much lately, I did not realise that a lot of my mates would be there.

I was over the moon to walk into the room and find:
  1. Multiple Mummy's Kerry and her boy
  2. Mummy From The Heart's Mich and her lad and twin girls
  3. Wit Wit Woo's Kate and her lad (who played a lot with Aaron - thank you thank you)
  4. I heart Motherhood and her girl
  5. have I forgotten anyone???
They split the children into two age groups and Aaron of course was in the younger one which was Mini Ps (1-3 year olds).

So the day was to give us an idea of a Mini Ps party, if one were to hire Perform for party entertainment.



On the day, I found "something" missing...  I attributed it to the "actress" who hosted our "party" as I didn't feel she engaged enough (from the heart) with the kids.  I felt she was more (energetically) focused on her "performance".  I think it would be good to use Actors / Actresses who have done a lot of TIE (Theatre In Education) as they are naturals with children.  This is just one experience on one day, and not reflective of Perform as a whole and is only my opinion.

Having watched the video here, I now see what was also missing was a birthday boy or girl.  THAT adds a certain something.  Everyone being there FOR someone.  Their Mum and Dad making the day special for THEM.  The cake etc.... etc....  So I don't think we got a real true insight into a party in its true sense.

What was good was the musical instruments, the parachute circle in the middle of the room, etc...

I didn't find the music played, nearly as catchy as the music I hear everyday on CBeebies, and considering music always makes Aaron dance and he didn't dance as much as he would at home, I think he would agree with me.  A couple of times he wandered over to the window like this (below) as he wasn't totally 100% engaged.
Aaron and Multiple Mummy's Noah :-)


I would say though that the session clashed with what would have been his lunch, and nap time.  And a few other kids also looked in a pre-nap haze.

Perform, if you do it again, choose a slightly different time.

The rest of the pics: