Stop by here every Saturday for a family activity, a site for the kids, a shopping site, a site offering humor or inspiration about parenting children with special needs, and a site that's just silly or fun, all designed to get you through your weekend with kids amused and spirits intact. Today's list:

1. Activity: Make a Musical Instrument
2. Kids' Site: Pottermore
3. Shopping: Perkins Smart Brailler
4. Humor: "Special Needs Parenting: Things I Never Thought I'd Say"
5. Just for Fun: In Memoriam - Remembering the Shows We Lost During the 2011-2012 Season

And, as a bonus, a fun reader suggestion: on the Reader Respond page for do-it-yourself therapy toys, Heather wrote: "My daughter loves to shake things. Her PT got a plastic ring from the craft store and tied several ribbons to it. My daughter loves it." Do you have an improvised therapeutic toy that your child loves? Add it to the list.

Here's your weekly list of blog posts that have received comments over the past seven days. See what your fellow readers are talking about and add your opinion:

• In the Forum: Orthographic Dyslexia
• Autistic Kids, Violent Adults
• Making Inclusion a Two-Way Street
• Not Everybody Thinks Jerry Lewis Is a Great Humanitarian

Today's Comment of the Week comes from a special-education teacher who, in response to the many comments on the post Autistic Kids, Violent Adults, asked for some advice from parents: "I am a special education teacher who works with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.  I also have a 9 year old cousin diagnosed with autism who has been kicked out of school on several occasions for aggression towards adults and other children.  As parents, what would you like to see happen with your children in the school setting, is there something that the school districts can be doing better? Would you attend a parent support group at your child's school if it was offered? Thank you for any input you have."

Another professional has asked for help over on the forum, where Debbies2 writes, "I work for an Early Childhood program.  The question I have is how do children that are 3-5 year old qualify for a 504 and who is qualified to write the plan?" I directed her to some documents on 504s, but if you have personal experience with preschool 504s, please add your comments there.

What do you feel like commenting about today?

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Can you believe this weekend is already Memorial Day weekend for those of us in the U.S.? That means that summer is officially upon us, and it's beyond time to start planning that Camp Mom or choosing some summer projects or organizing a summer learning program or figuring out your summer reading list. If your main concern is surviving this looooong weekend, though (fortified in our school by two extra burned-off snow days), check these articles for some survival tips:

• Before You Take Kids on a Car Trip
• How to Keep Your Kid in a Car Seat
• Fun 911
• Fun Things to Do
• 101 Things to Do When There's Nothing to Do
• Keep Therapy Going Over School Breaks
• Keep Learning Going Over School Breaks
• Special Needs and Special Occasions
• Family Gathering Survival Kit

What are you up to this weekend?

More Summer Survival Tips | Next Stressful Holiday: July 4

_{Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images}

I asked you to tell your IEP meeting horror stories, and a reader calling herself Advocate Annie took the opportunity to give a pep talk to parents doing special-education battle:

"The best way to get services for your child is to get yourself educated. Go online to Wrightslaw.com and soak in the knowledge. As a parent, you are an equal member of the IEP team. But without knowledge, you can't possibly have the same amount of power. The bottom line is having the ability to know the strategies in obtaining services for your child: proper diagnosis (from doctor and from educational testing), proper goals (that are measurable), and resulting services. Always put every request in writing, and by educating yourself, you will become your child's most powerful advocate. My boys are now 19 and 21. I had to sue the school district twice, once for each boy. I won both lawsuits. In the end, I turned my knowledge into becoming an advocate for my boys, and for other families with special needs kids. I advocate for their children at IEPs, but I also help educate the parents so that they can be their child's advocate."

And as if to illustrate what happens when parents become more educated about their rights and IEP regulations than the schools are, a reader going by the name of Mom to a Special Kid posted this story:

"Just came from my son's meeting. Teacher's did not sit in the same room and I never saw them. The CST head sat in another room and my advocate (who cost $1,800 for the day) went between the rooms for him to deny ESY. Then the teachers signed that they attended an IEP meeting! What meeting-we were never in the same room! When I was asked to sign I refused because no meeting was held, and the CST head said there is no real definition of an IEP meeting. HaHaHa! Has he ever heard of a little thing called THE LAW!

If you have some IEP experience to share or gripe about, add it to the Readers Respond page on IEP meetings. And if you're looking for more ways to educate yourself on your IEP rights and the terms you'll come across, take my Special Education Basics e-mail course or online tutorial to get you up and running.

More on IEP Advocacy | More Readers Respond Pages

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}