After watching the 2008 Olympics, I have to say that I am happy that my girls are circus performers.
In circus, when you slip a bit and recover, style, and smile, people APPLAUD!!! (No one deducts .10 of a point.)
In circus, they assume that you will drop your juggling clubs, fall off the unicycle, or drop a ball. You plan for it. We mess up. Ain’t that cool?!
Circus has great vocabulary: Lyra. Spanish Web, Trapeze, Silks, Teeterboard, Style, Circus hands.
The top ten things that circus performing can teach you:
10. Be flexible.
9. No matter how short your routine, perform like you really mean it.
8. The world is cool when you are upside down.
7. When you are spinning round and round really fast, held on by your ankle and you are having the time of your life – remember to smile.
6. Trust yourself. Trust your team. Trust (but verify) your equipment.
5. Life really is all about storytelling (and physics).
4. Expect to screw up; be prepared.
3. When you screw up, style! (Big flourish, big smile, yeah, I SO meant to do that!)
2. Juggling. It’s what we all do every day: words, expectations, tasks. If you don’t know how it’s done, you can be easily fooled by a master (just read Haroun and the Sea of Stories).
1. Clowning is serious business.
Living on the Lip of Insanity 
I think that is just awesome that your girls are circus performers. What great skills they are learning. Not just for the circus but for life. Many are skills we can apply to teaching as well; be flexible, trust, and even be prepared when you screw up! Good luck to both of them.
Hi Nedra – thanks for taking the time to comment!
I agree with you about circus. If all my classes had as much for students, I could die a happy teacher. The girls come home with their brains buzzing and their bodies tired. They don’t know how much they are learning about science, art, dance, math (area of a parabola underneath – a juggling arc- for example) and language – It’s what Randy Pauch called a “head fake.” They learn how to think on their feet and to watch, collaborate, and react to the others around them. The more I think about it, the more I know that these are life skills everyone should have.
And they can do a fierce split as well.