Buying a great multimedia home PC can kick-start your kids into a great career, and not just in accountancy. The new PC industry is looking for artists, writers, storytellers, publishers, games players and designers - but they need to start early.

According to Plato, most effective kind of education is that a child should play among lovely things. While he probably wasn't thinking digitally at time, with emergence of powerful and affordable multimedia PCs, children can now play among lovely things and at same time acquire valuable knowledge and skills that will serve them well in whatever career or profession they may decide to pursue.

Today, most children take computers like ducks to water. Even youngest seem to be alarming clever at setting up and operating all sort of gadgets. Whatever they're using a popular game console or any of other ubiquitous home or arcade systems, technology seems to be more naturally comprehensible to average child than it is to average parent or teacher.

With an increasingly large percentage of children living in households with a computer of some sort, in many ways they're now becoming just another home appliance. But for parents who want to help their children at home/school, apparent labyrinth of technological options can appear depressingly daunting.

It's now possible to get great job in computers that isn't about science, maths programming or accountancy. Increasingly, `humanity-based' skills are often perceived as more valuable and computers can get you into a whole new range of professions evolving around games production, multimedia, digital video or publishing on Internet. Within these, and even more traditional professions - such as journalism, film, television, publishing, advertising, design and music - computers and digital technology have become widespread. And there are probably very few jobs or professions in future that won't require some degree of computer literacy.

2. Update your advocacy notebook -- Hopefully you have a single book that allows you to keep all of your child's information (evaluations, old IEPs, correspondence with school & service providers, etc.) organized & easily accessible. If there is new information from Dr.'s, teachers, or related service providers that needs added to your book take care of filing now. You'll be glad to have most current information if issue comes up during meeting.

3. Do your homework -- is there any new information on your child's disability, have you heard about any promising new intervention strategies that caught your attention? Now is time to check them out. Research them on internet or contact a local resource person who can tell you more or provide you with information to review.

4. Come prepared to "grow" your team -- If you've found anything interesting during your research, IEP meeting is an excellent time to share this information. Rather than contacting everyone individually or relying on 1 person to pass on your information, you can share it with everyone at once. If information describe an intervention strategy you would like used in this year's IEP then be sure to bring copies so everyone can look over information at once during meeting. Few professional team members are going to be willing to sign off on something they don't understand or feel comfortable with. By helping them learn, you maximize your chances of getting what you want.

5. Make your list -- Once you're organized & your research is complete is time to make your list. What are issues you feel like really need to be addressed in your child's IEP. Remember other team members may want to add additional items during your discussion, but you don't want to be thinking afterwards, "Oh I really wanted to discuss X & forgot to bring it up." Right now, while you're calm & not under time pressure is time to decide what issues are from your perspective.

6. Prioritize -- Because IEPs are a team process they by their very nature demand compromise. So once you've developed you list, you'll need to go back through & divide it into 2 categories.