MYKIDSTIME.IE:With children off school during the Christmas holidays many parents have been confronted with the challenge of finding things for their little darlings to do, particularly when the weather closes off the garden.

This was a problem Galway-based Jill Holtz was familiar as she became frustrated with the lack of centralised information about what activities were available.

To remedy this Holtz and a friend Michelle Davitt set up Mykidstime.ie which is a free, online resource with listings for classes, clubs and activities.

"The project came from personal need because I wasn't able to access information classes. My oldest daughter was desperate to do ballet but I looked on the internet, looked in the library and asked around but just couldn't find any," he says.

"The more I thought about it, the more the need became obvious and I thought the web was the natural home for this."

When the project was launched on a pilot basis in June 2007 it concentrated on Galway, although Hotlz and Davitt were always planning a nationwide roll-out and now provide listings for seven counties. "It is hard to get access to information, so you do need to have people on the ground locally checking local papers, community notes, that sort of thing," says Holtz, explaining the difficulties in rolling out the scheme nationwide.

The providers of activities are contacted before a listing is placed on the website to ensure they are happy to be listed on the website.

All organisers of classes or events are contacted before a listing is placed on the site. "Because it is for parents and kids, we need to have control over what goes on the site."

From the outset Hotlz and Davitt hoped the project would be more than a hobby because they wanted work that was interesting but family friendly. The site generates income through two streams. The first is advertising from people or companies providing events and classes for children. There is also a new service where bookings can be made for classes and activities advertised on its site, from which it earns a small booking fee.

"With our site you can book one child into a class and a second child into a different activity without having to go to a different website."

"The big question was whether it would be a viable business and that was another reason why we went with a pilot initially, to see if the return is there, and we found that it was.

"We knew parents would like the idea but after 12 months we found that businesses did too. Many of the advertisers we deal with are not very web orientated and we give them a new way of reaching a very niche audience."

They approached Enterprise Ireland and secured a €5,000 innovation voucher which they used to get technical help from researchers at the Deri Institute at NUI Galway.

The company has also received support from the Galway City and County Enterprise Board.