Unusual & Meaningful Holidays for kids

Come April-May and kids and parents alike are off on their summer vacations. Gone are the days when kids went away to their parent's native places and stayed with their grandparents, uncles and aunts and a host of cousins until the end of the holidays. There are no such options available today with nuclear families, working grandparents, uncles and aunts & small city houses without adequate outdoor spaces. Besides, this would be too boring!! for today's kids who need to compete with their peers on which "foreign" destinations they are going to for their summer holidays.
As disposable incomes grow in India, so has over indulgence of kids by their parents and their possesive ways where they try to live their lives through the lives of their kids. The Joshis, Swaminathans and Chawlas need to compete amongst themselves even over their kids summer holidays!! My daughter (9 yrs) wanted to visit the USA this summer to visit her cousins and because her friends are going to Singapore, Europe and other places. I told her that she will get to go on just one "foreign" holiday (paid by me) from 1st to 12th standard and she is free to choose the year when she would like to do this (3rd, 5th, 8th or 12th standard). After some persuasion, explanation on why, etc. she agreed to this. Next morning she gets up and says "But what about my US trip this summer"?
I am sticking to my guns on this one and did some research on some unusual holidays for kids that will hopefully help them appreciate nature, develop good social skills, teamwork, responsibility and other values while they get to see places and enjoy themselves. Here are a few that I have found:

1. Summer Training course at Bhonsala Military School, Nasik. Am sure many other military schools conduct these one month training courses in the country. As of today, this one seems to be for boys only.
2. Various eco-friendly adventure tourism camps conducted by Pugmarks Holidays (http://www.pugmarksholidays.com/) a completely kids focused Travel/Tourism company. They conduct simple introductory 4 day camping trips for 8-10 year olds to 20 day adventure trips to various parts of the Himalayas (trekking, rock climbing, white water rafting, skiing, mountain biking), Lakshadweep (snorkeling, scuba diving) to jungle safaris in Kanha, Ranathambore, etc. The best thing about them is that (over indulgent, possesive) parents are not allowed to contact their kids during these trips!! Parents can check out how the camps are going and what the kids did at the camp on a daily basis on their website.
3. Spending a summer holiday working at some media company, art studio, engineering company or any organization that the kid has some interest, aptitude for.
4. Historical tours, art tours and visiting places that are relevant to kids, roughly matching with what they have learnt in school in the previous (or next) couple of years
5. Visiting places that have unusual bio-diversity, bio-spheres, unusual physical phenomena (hot water springs, stalagmite caves, etc.), Galapagos islands
6. Sports Camps - cricket, football, tennis, golf, swimming, etc.
7. Some meaningful social projects - working with NGOs, working for a cause, etc.

As for "foreign" trips they can do that once in a 10-12 year period! (on a shoe string budget) and as many as they like later in life with their own money!!

I am sure kids will get to see Paris, Singapore, London, LA, Disneyland in their lifetimes, but doing meaningful activities, building social skills, making friends is what we can help our kids with.

Write in to me with any other holiday ideas that you may have for kids.