For his second birthday, Ethan's friend Alex gave him a set of paints for art projects.  I had been reading a book on how to develop your toddler's fine motor skills and decided to use the paints to help.  We decided to work on learning our colors and shapes, so Dad put a circle, square and triangle on a large piece of paper.  Ethan then attempted to paint the shapes.  Although he is too little to paint in between the lines, we were able to work on the following skills:

• Fine motor skill development--Painting between the lines helps little ones learn to control their little hands.  It doesn't matter if they are successful as long as they know they try to meet the goal. 
  
• Learning colors--We had Ethan ask for each color that he wanted by name and then asked him to show us which one was the color he was looking for.  If he wanted blue, we asked him to point out the blue paint.  He was so excited to be challenged by the game and did a great job.  Dad actually helped him out by identifying all the colors before we started.  Colors such as brown and pink aren't always in Ethan's color books so it was a great reminder for him. 
  
• Learning shapes--After Dad put the shapes on the paper, he asked Ethan to identify them.  After he was finished his painting, we went back to the shapes and asked him what colors he had chosen to paint the shapes. 
  

It was a great art project that could incorporate learning AND fun at the same time.  What kinds of projects do you do with your kids to help them build their fine motor skills?  Let us know in the comments.