Let children paint.  Put them where they will cause the least damage, spread newspaper on the floor, drape them in old shirts and stick around to check that they don’t tramp paint about the place – but don’t stop them.  They can paint on the floor or on a table, but an easel is most convenient.  Choose one that also has a chalkboard side. 

Channel your child’s desire to customize your walls and belongings.  Buy some decorators’ lining paper and unroll it across an entire room.  Provide paints, felt tips, stickers, stencils and whatever else your child wants and leave them to it.  The result may be a panorama, a series of cartoons, a banner, graffiti or just a great scribble but the opportunity to deface such a huge expanse of plain paper is irresistible to most children.  It’s also a fail-safe activity to play dates. 

Discover cartoon art.  Get your children a book that demonstrates, step-by-step, how to draw cartoons.  If they follow the instructions carefully, they’ll be amazed at how easily they can create impressive effects. 

Doodle with your kids.  Get them to ‘take a line for a walk’ without lifting the crayon or pen off the paper.  Show them how you can use one continuous line to write, draw and shade.  Ask your children to close their eyes and draw from memory.  Creating images with a single line is a simple but exciting art exercise. 

Draw around your kids, as they lie on the floor on a large sheet of paper.  Then let them add their own features and clothes and colour themselves in. 

Draw lots of circles on a sheet of paper and invite your child to turn each one into a different face. 

Project your child’s profile on a piece of paper, using side lighting to cast a shadow.  Draw around the shadow’s edge to get an accurate silhouette that can then be cut out.  Use black paper for a dramatic, period effect like a Victorian silhouette.  Having demonstrated the technique, let them have a go at creating your silhouette. 

Allow pavement art.  Buy your children a selection of chunky coloured chalks and let them draw on paving stones.  The effect is dramatic but not damaging or long lasting – the first rain will wash the chalk away. 

Draw faces on oranges, bananas and eggs – to surprise your children and make them smile.  Then let them have a go at creating some comic characters of their own. 

Recycle your rubbish.  Collect old bottles, jam jars, yogurt pots cereal packets, cartons, packaging, ribbons, wrapping paper, greetings cards, remnants of cloth and other arty-crafty scraps in a big plastic crate.  These will provide ready-made  materials for modelling sessions.  Young children adore sitting on a splash mat with all this detritus and some PVA glue, making weird and wonderful constructions.  Let them paint or colour in the finished objects. 

Invest in a mini sewing machine, if you don’t already have a full-sized one.  These are brilliant for quick mending jobs and for affixing interminable name tapes.  They’re also popular with older children, who may want to do your sewing for you!

Visit galleries and exhibitions armed with sketchbooks and pencils so that your kids can choose to copy artworks, or else simply sit and draw if that’s their preference.  You might also treat a gallery visit like a walk, simply strolling through the rooms, stopping wherever something grabs your children’s attention.  Offer some ideas, such as seeing if anyone in the paintings looks like someone you know, or seeing if you can spot a car in any of the pictures; but avoid long, ponderous interpretations as these can put younger children off art for life!