。
She had a hard time educating her children.
Literal
She [topic-は] children [object-を] educate [for the purpose of-のに] struggled.
教育する ('to educate') is the formal/standard verb for educating in the school sense — broader than 教える ('to teach'), encompassing the whole project of forming a child's character and knowledge. The pivot is purposive のに ('for the purpose of'), distinct from contrastive のに ('even though') — only context disambiguates them, with 苦労した ('struggled') here making it unambiguously purposive. Education-themed sentences are a Japanese cultural touchstone, given the historic weight given to academic credentialing and the long, exam-driven path through 受験 ('entrance exams').