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Perhaps inevitably, such frenetic activity, combined with rising concerns about health and fitness, has led to another trend: camps for wellness. Tina Krinsky likes to think her company kicked off the rage four years ago when it launched a partnership with the upscale spa Canyon Ranch on the campus of Bryn Mawr College ($1,445 a week) in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She asserts that even though the male and female campers have the option of the occasional pedicure or facial, they spend the majority of their time exercising, working with personal trainers, learning about proper nutrition and getting serene through meditation and yoga. Says Mimi Klein of Sarasota, Fla., whose daughter Allison, 15, is heading back this summer for the second time: "I felt pretty strongly that it was important for a teenage girl to have a strong sense of self and understand how to take care of her body and mind as she went into high school," she says. Even some old-fashioned camps are joining the mind-and-body movement. The Kenwood camp in New Hampshire, a place about as woodsy and canoe laden as they come, plans to offer guided meditation and yoga this summer. "Kids are open to a lot more now," says camp owner Scott Brody, "in part because their parents have gotten more into health as well."
The happy medium, as some camps have discovered, is combining specialty pursuits with old-fashioned recreation, creating a balance between work and play. At Emagination Computer Camps, which has locations in Waltham, Mass., Atlanta, Lake Forest, Ill., and the suburbs of Philadelphia, kids spend the day in three tech workshops, choosing among such options as building PCs, designing computer games and wiring toy robots. But they are also required to participate in one session a day of what the camp calls retro games. Among them: Ultimate Frisbee, kickball and swimming. Ah, wilderness! --With reporting by Leslie Whitaker/Chicago and Rebecca Winters/Los Angeles