It's all well and good to encourage your kids to read, but what about encouraging them to write? At Little Elephants, one mama did just that and ended up with a fantastic picture book (based on a kit from Klutz, truly one of the all-time great creativity-inspiring companies out there).

Younger kids could scale down a bit and work from these blank board books (found via 50 Books), and use whatever supplies you can think of to create picture books that express their innermost thoughts and dreams (innermost thoughts and dreams of a board-book aged child include but are not limited to: pooping in the potty, eating noodles, avoiding naps).

Lastly, an idea stolen from my kids' preschool: the teachers occasionally corner each individual child and, pen and paper at the ready, and ask them "How does your story start?" They furiously take dictation from the child, and at the end of the school year the parents are presented with a Kinko's-bound book of whatever thoughts spilled out of their child over the course of the school year, complete with child-designed cover. With each story dated and arranged chronologically, it's a fascinating trip through a developing brain.