Irish kids are being offered the ultimate workout courtesy of a new 'gym' opening in the capital -- but far from pumping iron, this workshop will see them working on their imaginations.

The free gym, which will run in July and August, aims to help parents to balance their children's over-use of television and computer games while giving them an outlet for the long summer months.

Successful

Rosaleen Durkan, who co-designed the ImaginationGYM programme, said the audio programme, used in a number of schools, was already proving successful in getting young children to move away from the images they were fed by tv and computer games.

In this 45-minute workshop, children listen to The Enchanted Forest CD which brings them on a journey into an imaginative world. On completion, children get time to draw and colour what they have experienced using special ImaginationGYM activity pages.

"We purposely designed it as an audio CD with no visuals so the child has to create the stories and use their own creativity and imaginations," said Ms Durkan. "From my experience all parents allow children a certain amount of tv time, but if it's out of focus with other activities it needs to be balanced.

"When we do workshops in schools we find computer games a real problem. With one child it took him eight weeks not to draw a PlayStation image in the book. The images were so imbedded in his mind," she added.

The programme has recently been taken on in Finland where it will be used in all the country's pre-schools. It is also gaining popularity around the world with projects running in South Africa and the US. The programme is also involved in a number of university studies.

And it is also proving a huge hit with families at home.

"From a parents point of view, they are absolutely worn out and it's a great way to keep their child busy without feeling guilty," added Ms Durkan.

Now the team plan to offer the programme for free to busy parents over the summer. The workshops will be held at the Dublin Nutri Centre on South William Street.

All children must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the workshop. For more information see www.imaginationgym.com.

- Caroline Crawford