Summer Break Without the Slide: Building Routines, Confidence, and Curiosity

Are you worried your child might forget crucial academic skills during the summer break? Wondering how to keep them engaged, confident, and ready for the new school year — without turning your home into a classroom?

In this episode of The Parenting Cipher, Pam Roggeman, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Phoenix and a former award-winning high school English teacher, joins Genie to demystify the "summer slide." She shares stories from her years in the classroom, explains what the summer slide really is, and gives practical, realistic ways to weave learning into everyday summer routines for every kind of learner — neurodivergent or not.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding the Summer Slide: what it means and why kids lose academic ground over the break if learning routines stop entirely.
• Routines Matter: why routines around sleep, meals, and learning support kids' social-emotional health and prepare them for the transition back to school.
• Everyday Academics: practical, low-pressure ways to practice math (grocery store challenges), writing (letters, journals, song lists), and reading (comic books to audiobooks) that don't feel like schoolwork.
• Boosting Confidence & Connection: strategies to help reluctant readers and writers feel curious, connected, and confident — and how to build on what already interests them.
• Social-Emotional Prep: easing the transition back to school, from visiting the building in advance to writing letters that introduce your child to a new teacher.
• Real-Life Skills: how self-advocacy, social practice, and simply being present set kids up to thrive in and out of the classroom.

Timestamps

00:00 Discussing summer homework strategies

03:49 Balancing summer breaks and learning

06:50 Managing classroom time effectively

13:12 Setting summer schedules for kids

14:41 Teaching core subjects at home

19:12 Teaching kids money management

22:59 Helping Kids with Writing Skills

25:44 Setting goals and making lists

28:58 Reading aloud with your child

32:08 Encouraging kids to read books

36:35 Engaging students with varied formats

39:23 Listening to audiobooks with kids

41:52 Identifying signs of summer slide

45:19 Visiting PetSmart as a zoo alternative

48:43 Writing letters to support children

53:15 Helping shy kids make friends

54:32 Navigating school lunchtime decisions

57:36 Importance of Consistency and Self-regulation

Quotes

"The summer slide is just what it sounds like. It is the academic loss that all of our kids, unless we combat it, experience over the summer."

— Pam Roggeman [02:22]

"Learning over the summer doesn't necessarily have to look and feel like school, because our kids do need a break."

— Pam Roggeman [04:18]

"We're keeping them curious, we're keeping them confident, and we're keeping them connected."

— Pam Roggeman [06:22]

"Consistency over time — that's what builds results. We fall back to our habits."

— Pam Roggeman [57:47]

"There are a lot of reasons to cry in this world, but homework is not one of them."

— Pam Roggeman [03:29]

Links and Resources

• Book lists: search your local librarian's picks or favorite teacher accounts on Instagram for age-appropriate young adult and children's titles.
• Local library programs: check your public library or high school for free summer reading programs and events.
• Audiobook platforms: many libraries offer free audiobook access through apps like Libby or Hoopla.
• Related listening: The Parenting Cipher's homework episode, for more on easing academic pressure at home.

Speaker Biographies

Pam Roggeman

Pam Roggeman is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Phoenix. Before moving into higher-education leadership, she spent 18 years as an award-winning high school English teacher in Arizona. She's passionate about teacher preparation, accessible learning, and the ways academic and social-emotional growth go hand in hand.

Genie Dawkins

Genie Dawkins is the host of The Parenting Cipher, a podcast for parents of neurodiverse children, especially Black and brown families navigating IEPs, ADHD, autism, and everything in between. She brings both a parent's lived experience and years of advocacy work to every conversation on the show.