With Mom around, it's camp time!

My husband, Howard, and I arrived on Long Island from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in 1995. I came from a modest family of summer staycationers, particularly my mom. She was our role model who would take my brother and me to the local pool on a day admission, visit the library or travel with us to the city, possibly the Bronx Zoo, all worthy examples for our eventual “What I did on my summer vacation” school essays.

Consequently, being unable to afford elaborate trips or sleepaway camp, I approached my new life as a Nassau County resident and young parent by tapping into all the East Meadow community had to offer. I wasn’t alone. A brigade of other parents was doing exactly what I was too, resulting in what our family called “Mom’s Summer Camp.”

Like many school districts, summer programs filled July mornings for a nominal fee that bought three subjects to explore weekdays when the program was in session. They’d include a choice of art, music, dance and language -- even cooking.

By the end of third grade, my daughter wanted to play clarinet because it was like the recorder she learned in second grade, and my son also wanted to play clarinet because it enabled him to be seen clearly in school concerts. So, they "graduated" to another option for students 8 to 18 -- the East Meadow Summer Music Program. I would shuttle our kids to arrive at 8:30 a.m., go home to work for a few hours, then return for their dismissal – like the other parents. The savvy among us drove there early to get the better parking spots and waited.

Afternoons were spent at Veterans Memorial Park, where parents had signed up kids for free swimming lessons, arts and crafts sessions, or kick-line and cheerleading practices that culminated in a late summer, friendly competition among Hempstead Town parks at Nassau Community College.

The introductory “guppies” and other swim classes taught the kids not just how to swim but how to pass Red Cross requirements to get official cards -- and celebratory snacks. Some kids competed in swim and dive team meets, but it was my now-adult son who reminisced about those days that gave him “a life skill” he feels no one should go without.

“Mom’s Summer Camp,” of course, must include special events and activities. Occasionally, the kids could choose a snack at the local deli after swimming even if it might spoil their dinner. The summer library program had raffles, bingo, video games and craft programs to round out the evenings.

We’d even take our kids to mini golf at Eisenhower Park, Jets Fest when the football team practiced at Hofstra University, or stroll to the local nursery to visit the koi pond. At times, neighborhood kids would run through lawn sprinklers, ride bikes and play soccer.

The fireflies, sidewalk chalk, occasional sunburn and back-to-school sales -- all in all, it might not have been a true summer camp with a sophisticated color war, care packages and talent shows, but it was a summer camp created our way.

Reader Lauren B. Lev lives in East Meadow.