In this work I intend to share my experience of ethnographic research with children on the outskirts of Maputo, in Mozambique. This is an experience that resulted from the research work for my master's thesis, entitled From home to school and vice versa: experiences of starting school from the perspective of children in Maputo, guided by Professor Antonella Tassinari and defended in March 2016 in the Postgraduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. It is worth highlighting that this text was presented at the 31st Brazilian Anthropology Meeting, which took place in Brasília, in December 2018, and focuses especially on the place of play and school as a focus.The research was carried out over a period of approximately 4 months, between February and March 2015, around 14 weeks of fieldwork, in a public Complete Primary School (EPC).