By Esther J. Cepeda

It’s mid-August and parents across the country are breathing a sigh of relief that their tours of duty as surrogate educators finally will end.

It’s a burden that many parents bear because they know that the only effective prevention against what’s commonly known as “summer learning loss” — the erosion of academic skills, particularly in reading and math, that happens when kids veg out all summer — is to keep kids actively engaged in mind-sharpening recreation. Yet it is mostly the parents who are middle-class or wealthy who can plow money into making this happen.

For children whose parents can afford it, there really isn’t the kind of lazy, relaxed summer you and I might remember from our childhoods — back when getting into a good college was not a goal set at birth. Kids from families with resources effectively go to school year-round because their summers are filled to the brim with enrichment activities.

This year, with one son going into the treacherous, teachers-take-the-gloves-off seventh grade and my oldest entering the college-prep track at our public high school, “summer” at my house has been a whirlwind of activity.

Read More Esther J. Cepeda: Ring the school bell year-round – The Washington Post.