My animation season in Grupotel Aldea started more than one month ago. Last year I became kids’ ninja, this year I have felt like a miniclub superhero! Nevertheless, I got back to my favourite adults animation, but I want to tell you everything from the beginning.

Improved miniclub skills

This season I started with a programme of different activities for the kids and adults. Since last year I have improved my miniclub skills a lot and I have learnt some new activities as well. I like learning new things and also thinking about how to improve and innovate the programme in order not to do all the time the same things.

The agency that I work for has a list of activities that we are supposed to do in the hotel. They always try to innovate the programme, especially for the kids. Last year, my colleague Krisztina was following the agency’s scripts of superheroes day, explorers day, western day, pirates day as well as some experiments. I was watching her, I learnt a lot from her – not just crafts and games but also some German – and together we did great job.

Kids animation

Anyway, the beginning of the current season was smooth. I did the activities I knew well and I felt much more confident with the kids animation as well. I cannot say I didn’t enjoy it but sometimes it’s not so easy with the kids, especially when you have many kids and you have to:

1. explain everything in English, German and Spanish (when the kids speak different languages)
2. be able to switch fast between the languages
3. answer many questions from the kids
4. deal with all the kids talking to you at the same moment
5. listen to theirs and family life stories
6. help all the kids
7. look after the kids
8. draw
9. cut
10. stick
11. tie
12. paint
13. clean

On the other hand, it’s quite enriching to work with the kids. I have learnt a lot of German vocabulary with them, I also learnt how to explain everything with arms and legs or with help of different sounds. It’s also interesting to see the differences among the kids. Some of them could draw for hours, they try to make everything perfect, some of them make five zig-zag lines and they’re done.

I can also see how the kids change during their holidays. Some of them when they arrive, they are very shy and afraid to be in the miniclub alone, sometimes they don’t even want to talk to me or they hide themselves behind their parents. Later during the holidays, they start opening up, they are not afraid anymore and we’re having much more fun together. The ones that are open from the beginning, open up even more and then they start to play with my patience since they got more confident with me. This year I also see some kids from last year and I cannot believe that they grew up so much! The parents are the same though.

Miniclub superhero

To get back to the programme, since the beginning I did the thematic days like pirates day, western day, superheroes day as well art attack, sandcastle competition, experiments or recycling handicrafts. The kids always enjoyed it a lot, during the day the families were always asking what is on in the miniclub during the day. When the kids saw me, they always started to wave or shout hello Lucie. All these small gestures made me feel like their “miniclub superhero” and it gave me the motivation and energy to carry on.

Back to adults animation

Even though I did enjoy my time in the miniclub, I decided to come back to my favourite adults animation and all these fitness and sports activities that I like doing. I could have started doing it because I got one more colleague to my “team” who is supposed to do the kids animation. My new colleague is French and he arrived two weeks ago. Since he had never done the animation before, the first week we did the programme together. Now it’s been a week since we do separated programmes.

Last and current season

If I compare the beginning of last season and the current season, I can say that it is so different! Last year the minidisco wasn’t as busy as this year, we have so many kids that it’s unbelievable. On the other hand, the evening shows are not busy at all. The families with little kids go to sleep early and then there are just a few people. It feels strange but we cannot do anything about it. Anyway, the high season is coming and everything will be completely different. We’ll have families with older kids that go to school now so the evening shows and activities for adults will be definitely busier. Till it happens I take it as saving energy time and slow preparation for the exhausting high season. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you informed about it!