Teacher Knits 23 Adorable Little Dolls, Each Representing A Student In Her Class

Education is one of the biggest things affected by the lockdown and has resulted in most children being educated at home. In some cases, they are learning online and in others they are being taught by parents. While many kids are missing school it is also a fact that many teachers are missing their pupils.

After all, going from seeing each other almost every day to not seeing each other for months and months is a big change. However, one teacher in The Netherlands put her time to good use (when she wasn’t teaching online) by creating 23 little knitted dolls, each one depicting a child in her class.

According to Aleteia, Meinster-Van der Duin, who works at the Dr. H.Bavinck school in Haarlem, the Netherlands, spoke of how she missed seeing her pupils every day:

"It was all up and running that the school closed. It all hit me like this … The children were no longer in school. And I miss them so much."

Her knitting project was inspired by knitted dolls she saw on Pinterest and she quickly turned her hand to creating the beautiful items. Each one is styled to match the pupil, with little bows, sweatshirts, glasses and unique hairstyles. To complete the class she even made a doll representing herself. It took around 3 to 4 hours to complete each doll, which comes in at well over 100 hours in total labour time, certainly no mean feat.

What is really lovely is that the school children returned to school for one day to pick up belongings they left behind, and each one was presented with their doll as a gift. No doubt, many of them will keep them many years into the future to not only remember their teacher but one of the most unique moments in their entire lives (even if they don’t yet fully understand it).

While other teachers have asked Meinster-Van der Duin to knit their classes, she says there is no time, but that she will make sure her class next year also gets a little knitted keepsake.

We think the dolls, and more importantly the idea, is absolutely adorable, and we take our hats off to all the teachers and parents working to educate children through these difficult times.