Fine motor skills is the exercise of the tiny muscles and movements in our hands and the coordination of our hands and fingers with our eyes - all skills that are important with reading and writing (and much more).  Fine motor skills require a lot of practice and children can often get easily frustrated and discouraged when forced to put pencil to paper before they are truly ready.  Mary-Dale and I make sure that we provide the kiddos with many fun, hands on activities where they can manipulated small objects, like Lego, play-dough, puzzles, and this Geo-board that Silas is playing with - to build those muscles!