Seattle -- "Three, two, one, blastoff!"
It's rare to see kids enjoying school this much. Then again, what school has a curriculum of trampolining, using a trapeze and balancing on a tightwire. It's the only school 4-year-old Ilana Jacobson has ever known.
"I can do six," she says.
"Six? Six what?"
"Six jumps."
"Really, six jumps?"
"Or I can do eleven," Ilana adds.
Welcome to Seattle's School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts. Here the big top meets non-profit, where parents like Ilana's take them for a different kind of education.
"We wanted to have both my daughter and my son get more comfortable in their bodies and try new things," says Ilana's father. "And this has been a really great place to do that."
Seven years ago SANCA's founders envisioned a place that would help fight against childhood obesity in a non-competitive environment. From humble beginnings, SANCA now sees more than 800 people a week.
Tara Jensen, operations manager for the school says, "Because there are so many skills that are taught in each circus class, there's bound to be something that each child will walk away from feeling successful and having gained some self-confidence."
And how often do kids want *more school?
Four-year-old Jack Revello comes here on Mondays but would like to come more often.
As his mother Jeannie says, "It's never a problem to get ready in the morning. He really loves it."
But SANCA isn't just for little kids. It also has classes for big kids who have always had fantasies about running away and joining the circus.
But kids steal the show here, learning to balance and learning about themselves.
