And for good or for ill, many serious kids are eschewing seasonal diversions in favor of camps that aren't camps at all, but really internships in fields of interest.
"It takes more to entertain kids now," said Jennifer Hoffman, a publicist for Pali Overnight Adventures, a high-end specialty camp in California that features a five-star chef, luxury accommodations, and a fountain that spews chocolate.
"By 10 or 11 years old, kids want a taste of things, like being an actor, or they want to be pampered and have a spa-camp experience," Hoffman says.
"The more stimulus the better."
If you're a parent, a lot has happened to camp since you last ingested bug juice and mystery meats and shared a bunk with a lunatic in the wilds.
These days, kids attend camps that offer instruction and internships in professions like veterinary medicine, sports management and photojournalism. Or, they partake in activities like cooking, recording rock music, even adventuring in Costa Rica.
Such camps are seen as the inevitable outgrowth of a wired society in which been-there/done-that children become savvy multimedia mavens by the time they're 7.
How, the thinking goes, can you expect plugged-in young people to be content spending their summers quietly contemplating mountain sunsets?
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Around 6.5 million children will attend camp this summer, up from 3.5 million 10 years ago, said Jeff Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association in New York.
Nearly 70 percent will go to sleep-away camp, while the rest will attend day camp, he added.
There are three reasons for the increased camper population, Solomon said.
First, many more young children - ages 4 and 5 - are attending camp than ever before. Historically, kids didn't go to sleep-away camp until 7, he explained. "But there are more dual-career and single-parent homes, baby-sitters are expensive, and the schoolyard's not safe," Solomon added.
