Letting go. . .

My first graders have a teacher again. Two teachers, to be exact. Rae Ann (my new house mate too!) will be with them full time, and Claudia, a girl we met at the YWAM retreat, will be with them til lunch every day. I'm so happy for the kids, to finally have some stability. I'm happy for me, to be able to focus on my responsiblities as academic director and not be so divided anymore. But, letting go is hard! I've spent so much time with the first graders over the last 3 months. I have been the most consistent teacher for them, and they see me as their authority and love and respect me. They need to start to see Rae Ann and Claudia that way too. So, instead of sitting with them at breakfast and lunch, as I've been doing, I leave them with Rae Ann and Claudia. The kids come up to me, "can I use the bathroom?" "He said.... She did....". I say, "there are 2 teachers sitting at your table, go talk to them. Or, sitting across the room, I hear something or see something that should really be corrected. "back off", I tell myself. "Let them take care of it. They need to establish themselves as the authorities, and the kids need to see them that way". How many times will I need to say that to myself before the urge to step in goes away?