It is a belief that makes children very excited.
The popular little mouse Pérez was created by the Jesuit Luís Coloma to console the young Spanish king Alfonso XIII after losing a tooth at the age of eight. Coloma imagined a small rodent living with his family inside a cookie tin in the then famous Prats tearoom, just over a hundred meters from the Royal Palace in Madrid.
El Ratoncito Pérez is a very popular character among Spanish and Latino children. The tradition is the same as that of the tooth fairy of the Germanic countries: when a child drops a baby tooth, he will put it under the pillow and, while he sleeps, these magical characters, elves, fairies or mice will change it for sweets or coins, which generates great excitement in children.
Experts comment that this habit of money under the pillow can ? Be an opportunity to introduce them to the idea of saving and to know that by collecting some bills or coins they can buy what they want? . It is also a way of “explaining in a concrete and didactic way the order of the numbers”.
It is the best way to teach children the social dynamics of money exchange and to learn about the notions of savings and effort, experts say.