Kids love to paint. It's even better when they can use something other than paper as their canvas. You can nurture your child's creativity by letting him paint on rocks, gourds, and cardboard boxes. Your child doesn't even have to use a brush any more than he has to use paper. He can always use his fingers or other objects such as rags, feathers, and string to create interesting textures.

You can even make your own paint with your child. You can make edible paint by whipping up a batch of vanilla pudding and adding some food coloring. This is ideal for finger-painting.

You can also encourage your child to paint rocks to look like animals. Look at a rock and see if its shape reminds you of any kind of animal. A very flat, rounded rock might suggest a ladybug, or the curving shape of this one might resemble a cat.

Craft stores often sell wooden bird houses that you can paint. You can get one for your child to paint so that a family of birds will be so impressed that they'll decide to move in.

Terracotta pots can be fun to jazz up. If you plan on using the pot for flowers or plants, you may want to seal up the inside with two or three coats of polyurethane varnish first. Let it dry before letting your young artist paint the outside of the pot. After the paint is dry, seal it with polyurethane just as you did with the inside of the pot. This helps protect your child's masterpiece from moisture damage.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Look at everything around you and see if you can come up with more.