Along the lines of "collection" as art, I recently read an activity idea in a book called "The Out-Of-Sync Child Has Fun" Place a piece of wide masking tape, sticky side out, around one or both of your child's wrists (and yours!). Take a nature walk and stick your found treasures to your wristband and talk about their characteristics and beauty.

I have a hard time getting my son to draw or paint. He would rather collect objects from around the yard or neighborhood and glue them to the paper. He is more of a collage artist! Sometimes we also gather things and simply display them in a bowl as a centerpiece...a bowl of acorns in the fall for example.

My children each get a blank canvas and their own set of paints for Christmas. This year we plan to take our supplies to the lake so they can capture something beautiful! Can't wait to see what that will be!

Don't forget chalk! It's an old standby but my daughter can't get enough of drawing on the driveway. Her favorite thing is for me to trace her body and then she adds her features, hair and clothes.

When the weather is nice outside, we like to eat dinner on our back patio. My daughter loves to pick everyone a flower from our flower beds to put at their place setting. This form of art may be a little more Martha Stewart than Picasso, but my daughter feels like she's creating something beautiful, nonetheless.