Lucia Martino

FOUNDER AND TEACHER

Instead of a boring “Who We are”, let me tell you my story…

I was born in a small town in the north of Spain, Asturias. A place where all our neighbors were family, where we took care of each other, where the street, nature and friends were part of our learning. 

Going out to play in the street with our friends while breathing that pure air made us feel so free…. What child of the 80’s does not remember the games we used to play out there? At least I remember it like it was yesterday.

The best afternoons were on Fridays during summer… We would play in the street until almost ten o’clock at night, until mom called us from the window that it was time to come back for dinner.

 My brothers and I didn’t always go up to dinner in the best shape. Mom wasn’t worried about the dirty shirts or bruised knees, although she always had solutions for both.

Ours was a generation that grew up on the street. It was our meeting place with friends. We had fun with a series of games, in many cases inherited from previous generations. I remember playing the typical Spanish games: “The English hide and seek” (without moving hands or feet), rope, churro, “half sleeve full sleeve”, marbles, yo-yo …

One of the boys’ star games was soccer. Playing soccer is, indeed, the passion of children of many generations. Ours enjoyed them using those open spaces where goals were made with two stones.

That image of the groups of girls playing in the street or in the schoolyards, playing hopscotch, no longer exists, it is from another time.

It was possibly the last generation to have the street as the setting for their games. For the new generations, the arrival of electronic games , computers and the increasingly intense traffic in cities  created a different way of having fun and socializing.

Now, instead there are great infrastructures where there are official fields prepared for this and other sports, but before, what we had was creativity, and our field was created with imagination.

 This was a slow way of life that surely many of us would like to escape to, where simplicity and calmness took on a new meaning. We were children growing up in the middle of nature, surrounded by animals and disconnected from the amount of over stimulation that today’s children receive. I, without a doubt, would sign up to live that childhood again.

Even with society having changed so drastically, we can still make a difference in our children’s childhood. By bringing our memories back we can make this happen. Childhood isn’t about having the best technology, crazy homework, and memorizing concepts . It’s actually the opposite. It’s about simplicity. It is about freedom. Freedom to explore, to find yourself and live the life you want because, after all, they have the right to live our same childhood. That is my story, that is Little Creative Souls.

Juju Nepomuceno  

TEACHER / MOMMY DADDY AND ME TEACHER

I was born and raised in Brazil in the 80s by my grandparents. I was fortunate enough to be raised by people who always valued and encouraged learning through play, allowing me to make the most of my childhood.

My cousins and I spent most of our days playing outdoors: soccer in the streets, tag, riding bikes around the neighborhood, and much more. We didn’t have many resources, so everything was improvised or handmade, which, in my view, made everything even more interesting. I vividly remember when my grandmother and I made a doll from scratch with leftover fabric from her little sewing store, or when my grandfather and I made a wheelbarrow with scrap wood and wheels from an old toy car. I remember feeling a genuine sense of accomplishment that I believe was essential for my personal growth, self-confidence, and overall well-being.

I am a firm believer that a positive childhood experience is vital and remains a psychological reference for the rest of our little ones’ lives.

As a teacher, my approach is learning through play. Children thrive and learn best when they are in a state of play. It is my goal, both as a person and as a teacher, to provide the most of it to all the children under my care.