This dissertation aims to know the parental collectives or parental day care centers, a new way of educating children from 0 to 3 years that has been broadening their adepts in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Although the school continues to be seen as a privileged locus for the construction of knowledge, it is already recognized that it is not the only place for this purpose. In Brazil, some families have been inspired by the model of parental collectives from France to think about the education of their children, an experience that has been developing in the country for about five years. Parental collectives are managed by families and educators to propose enriching activities for the age group, without the families being separated. This work intends to deepen the studies about the parental collectives in the city of Rio de Janeiro in an attempt to understand the proposal, the parties involved, how they operate and the pedagogical practices developed. For the development of the research, we sought subsidies within the context of non-formal education, using national and foreign literature, dialoguing with authors such as Trilla and Arantes. We also used the studies on childhood presented by Aries, Gélis and Kuhlmann, in view of the historical invisibility of care for the age group from zero to three years and the historical struggles for a quality educational service for this public. The methodological resources used were: (i) the application of an online questionnaire to families and educators of parental collectives in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with the purpose of mapping and delineating existing parental collectives; (ii) observation of the activities carried out in parental groups; (iii) semi-structured interviews with families and educators involved in this experience. The research allowed to identify that the dissatisfaction with the pedagogical proposals of the institutionalized day cares and the parents desire to participate actively in the childhood of their children appear among the main motivations for the option forthe parental collectives. The parental collectives are formed mainly by upper middle-class families, living in the southern part of the city with hired educators working with their families. It was also possible to verify that playing in a free way is valued and gains strength in the pedagogical proposals of the parental collectives.