This doesn't mean, however, that we can sit back and expect our kids' creative potential to spontaneously emerge. Indeed, when FAMILYFUN asked a panel of well-respected art teachers how best to bring out the artist in our kids, this advice consistently came up: Get in there and take an active role in your child's art life. If you have a reluctant artist, or one who is eager but needs new ideas, lead through inspiration: Dig up those great projects, do them alongside him, and supply him with interesting materials to work with.

You know how it feels to be around someone who inspires you; you can be such a presence for your child. "Parents are a more significant influence than anyone in a child's artistic development," says Susan Striker, who wrote The Anti-Coloring Book, a series of drawing workbooks that allow kids to create their own images.

The following suggestions from art teachers, gathered in their years of working with children, point to several ways to begin cultivating this family enthusiasm for art. There is no one way to be creative, of course. So examine these ideas, expand on them, turn them upside down and figure out how to make them work for you and your child. The interest your child develops now could become a passion that lasts a lifetime.