The other night my daughter was reading to me. She’s six. When she got to a harder word, she started to stumble and she looked to me for help. I wanted to tell her what the word was (hey, I had dishes to do, laundry waiting, and a few work emails to write) but instead she started to sound it out. The first two times she didn’t recognize the word, and then — all of a sudden — she heard herself say it.

That flash of recognition and pride on her face was priceless and as she continued on I could feel her confidence growing.

Ever had one of these moments with your child?

My husband and I have three daughters – we hit the trifecta this year with one in high school, one in middle school, and one in kindergarten. As we navigate the pleasures and perils of being a family, I find myself returning to my touchstone, my big picture question:

What do I want most for my daughters?

That they learn to love to learn. That they frequently experience that spark of recognition, that aha moment, that instant when they realize they can do it. And that they not be afraid to struggle.

That they know that “I can’t do it” should always be followed by “yet.”

Being a parent is awesome. . . and hard. The hardest thing I’ve ever done. I worry, probably more than I should. Are we doing the right things? Are they safe? Do they have the right teachers? Are they learning what they need to be awesome, productive adults? Navigating all this is tricky. I find there’s a lot of blind faith involved.

But it doesn’t all have to be blind faith. A couple of years ago, a few of us were talking about how hard it is as a parent to be sure about the education our own children are getting. That first conversation was the seed to creating Raise the Bar.

Having high expectations for kids – believing that kids can be challenged and can meet that challenge and be prepared and excited to take on the next one – should be the cornerstone of our education system. We want to know what we can do as parents to support our kids.

So we set out to create resources aimed specifically for parents. No website can assuage all parental worries, but we can make sure that parents have a place to go to learn more about what it means to have high expectations.

So check us out at raisethebarparents.org, join us on this blog, like us on Facebook…tell us what you think, tell us what you’d like to see more of.

Do I know how this is going to work out? No. But every minute I spend thinking of my own experiences and talking with other parents, tells me that we are on to something - a resource that parents trust, useful information that helps parents support their children, a place parents can go to exchange stories and ideas.

We’re new, it’s a challenge, and we aren’t there…yet.