Need Ideas for an Arts & Crafts Busy Box - Household Stuff

Making animals is always fun. Sounds like you could make a whole zoo with all that. Your twins could draw the cages and your daughter could fill them. Someone gave me a subscription to Family Fun magazine and it has some really great ideas in it. You could also print up some pictures and do kid-style scrapbooking.
I know what you mean about the twins taking your brain. I used to have friends who would say "I stopped doing xxx at about my third child" and I used to think, woohoo, I won't stop doing anything with my third child because I'm skipping three and going straight to four! Boy was I wrong.

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I have 8yr old triplets and my sister has come to my home every Saturday since the day they came home from the hospital. Auntie Mim always does projects with the kids and they have a "project box" in our hall closet. Auntie Mim goes to the dollar store and picks up little craft items which the kids love. For an item around the house...we take an .89 cent can of shaving cream and pile it onto our dining room table...the kids smear it around and finger paint with it...when done we just wipe it off and no harm to our table. We also bake alot..(we have many childrens cook books and they look thru them decide what they want to make...they check for ingrediants, make a grocery list of what we need, and I have them shop for the items.) We have several senior citizens near us..so about once a month my kids will make/bake things for the neighbors and secretly deliver them to their porch. Everybody wins, my kids love giving and having a secret and the seniors love the little treats!

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Check the arts and crafts section of the Family Fun website:
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/

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You could make papier mache! It's SO fun and since you have a whole week, it would be great to work on a little each day! Take a small/medium size balloon and blow it up. Cover it with layers of newspaper and paper mache paste (mix equal parts glue and water or use flour and water mixture). Wait until the next day and then attach your toilet paper tubes to the bottom to make four legs (use masking tape to attach them). Cut a toilet paper tube smaller to make a nose and attach that also with masking tape. (Oh, I forgot to mention this is a pig!) Cut out some ears from a cereal type of box and tape those on. Now cover all of this with two or three layers of white paper towel. Wait until the next day when it is dry and paint it. You can attach a tail with a pipe cleaner. You could even make it a crown or a little dress with the left over fabric scraps. You could also cut a slit in the top and make it into a piggy bank. These turn out so cute. If you want to make it shiny and "seal" it when it's done, coat the dry paint with a layer of mod podge or glue. Your little ones could help make "food" for the pig by coloring some paper or even coloring/painting some paper brown for mud. I did a paper mache project with my daughter when she was five and it was one of our best memories together!

A.,

Everything already said is great! I love Family Fun too. The only thing I'd add is that sometimes NOT planning a specific thing is okay too. I am a planner but my 7yr old and 5 yr old sometimes just like to glue and paint and be abstract. They are very proud that it came from their own little brains (and saves my brain from having to work!). You can have a simple outline (like the zoo idea) - especially with the 2yr olds who might need a little more direction - or just see what they come up with. It also works with such different ages because the boys don't have to try to do exactly what sister is able to do - a big thing in our house is being able to do what the older one can. :-)
Good Luck and enjoy your week!