A young, homeschooling mom designs a crayon box and crayon sleeves so her children can celebrate their language while coloring
When Sharmaine Saraspi started homeschooling her two children a year ago, she knew it would be a difficult journey. Her Facebook page, The Art of Homemaking, has documented her work researching, creating lesson plans, and crafting activities that balanced being educational with being fun.
Inspired by a post by The Googly Gooeys blog, Sharmaine designed her own Filipino, vintage-inspired crayon cover and sleeves. As of writing, it has been shared over 4,500 times on Facebook. Due to popular demand, the mom of two posted a free, downloadable file for parents and guardians who wanted to celebrate the Filipino language in their children’s daily lives.
“We’re young parents,” Sharmaine tells Manila Bulletin Lifestyle. The young mom was not even 20 when she had her first child, with a husband only a couple years older. “So life itself and all the adjustments continue even until now. That’s why I made the page, to provide help, ideas, resources, and share my thoughts, struggles, and small victories to all the fellow moms out there.”
Art is everywhere
Before deciding to devote herself to homeschooling her children full-time, the young mom and multimedia art graduate was a graphic designer. Her creative background has found a way into her style of homeschooling.
“I personally follow the classical way of teaching my kids,” says the Quezon City native. “I believe it is important to teach them art. But art is not just drawing, crafting, sketching, and painting. In fact, art is all around us. I was inspired by Edith Schaeffer’s book The Hidden Art of Homemaking, which has obviously inspired me and the name of my page.”
Throughout her Facebook page, there are photos and explanations of how Sharmaine uses art to teach her first grade and third grade children subjects like language, science, and even math. She believes that if all these subjects are treated like an art, it can encourage and foster in her children a love of learning and an appreciation for life as a whole.
Love of language
“I have struggled to teach Filipino to my children, and I wanted them to enjoy learning it,” Sharmaine adds. “I also love history and vintage things, as does my husband. It has influenced me a lot in my personal projects.”
While her husband has applied his passion for Filipino culture and design to his clothing line, Noflippin’ Clothing, Sharmaine tries to incorporate it into her teaching, which she shares online. The Kulayaan crayon box is just the latest in a string of Buwan ng Wika projects Sharmaine has designed for her children. These have included Filipiniana paper dolls and puzzles of Filipino artworks.
“I came to realize that we have a lot of great artists but few workers creating materials to share awareness about our history and heritage, so I have decided to make more Filipino-inspired materials,” the mother of two expresses, with hope. “I want to pass our culture on to the next generation. For the past few years, I’ve been seeing Filipino artists trying to revive our culture, which has almost been forgotten. I wanted to join the movement in the best way that I could, according to what God has entrusted me to do.”