About

My name is Ali Hynek (pronounced "He-Neck"). Jeremy and I got married in 2012 and moved from Southern California to Utah in 2015. After three years and three rounds of IVF, we got three babies at once: Penelope, Ethan and Alejandra, born March 11, 2016. Then in 2018 we added one more, Santiago, who's also an IVF baby. Raising these four with a supportive husband has been the best experience of my life.

I started Nena & Co. in 2013, so I've been in business for 13 years. Along the way I've been teaching myself to enjoy the now: don't sweat the small stuff, move past the mess, and notice how good this season is.

Fast forward to today: all my kids are in elementary school. During the school year, life was passing us by. I rushed the kids to school in the morning, then to homework, then to their activities. Some days I only saw my 10-year-olds for a couple of hours, and that didn't feel like enough. So we talked about homeschooling. I did a lot of research and we decided to try it. Worst case, they'd go back to public school, and that's not so bad.

I like to work smarter, not harder, so I applied for the Utah Fits All Scholarship. It's a state program that helps families pay for homeschool costs like tutors, curriculum and supplies. We use it to hire tutors for the subjects that matter most on the ACT: English, reading and math. I'm thinking about their future, not just who they are as little fourth graders, but who they'll be at 16 and 17. I teach the subjects I'm confident in and already love: Spanish, history, business, reading, science projects and STEM. We're even learning AI together. And sometimes our classroom goes on the road.

Part of our homeschool has turned into PEAS Academy Business 101. I'm writing the curriculum as I go, teaching my own kids how to think like entrepreneurs and helping them start their own businesses.

Our homeschool also has a podcast, Questions from the Backseat, where the kids research the questions they ask in the car.

We still live in Utah and have fully settled into the outdoor life. Next up is six weeks in Guatemala. It's where my business is and where we have family, and the kids will take Spanish classes every day. One of their goals is to be able to speak with their great-grandma, Margarita. Love doesn't need a specific language, but they want to be able to talk with her in hers.

We're excited to see where this takes us.