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Magic is one of the most entertaining things there is for kids. Some are not only excited about seeing a performance, but they also might want to do it themselves. Magic tricks can teach your children a great deal about illusions and sleight of hand; skills they can apply in other areas of life. Here is a good list to begin with on how to do magic tricks for kids.
Top 10 Simple Magic Tricks for Children
Here are some simple magic tricks your child can learn.
1. The Climbing Ring or Antigravity Ring
It’s a simple trick kid can perform with a little bit of practice at home.
What Your Child Needs
- A big rubber band
- A ring
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Prepare for the trick by cutting your rubber band in half. The bigger the rubber band, the better, as it gives them a long band to work with.
Step 2:
The performance begins; you child will explain to the audience about how he has been developing the powers of his mind. He can now move objects just by focusing on them and willing them to move. Next, he will ask for someone in the crowd to give him a ring as he has had good success with them.
Step 3:
He needs to thread the rubber band through the ring and hold it at both ends without stretching it while showing it to the crowd.
Step 4:
Now comes the tricky part. He has to hold the rubber band right in the middle with his thumb and index finger while hiding the rest of the band in his closed fist. Simultaneously he needs to stretch it so as to maintain the original length that he shows the crowd in the previous step.
Step 5:
Now he tells the audience that he’ll move the ring and makes an intense face while looking at the ring. He slowly releases the band stored in his fist as the stretched half of the band pulls it out. The ring stays in the band due to traction and moves up along as the rubber band contracts. It looks as though the ring is moving and nobody notices the rubber band shrink.
2. Flexible Pencil
This trick works as an optical illusion. A pencil and little practice will do.
What Your Child Needs
- A pencil or a pen
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Hold the pencil at nearly the tip of the eraser end. Grip it loosely between the index finger and the thumb.
Step 2:
Shake the hand up and down, so the pencil just flops along up and down with the hand. When you get the speed right, it looks as though the pencil is bending just ahead of the point of grip.
3. Linking clips
A good trick at the amateur level and takes practice.
What Your Child Needs
- Two paper clips
- A currency note or a similar size paper
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Fold the currency note from both ends so that it forms the shape of an “S” looking from the top.
Step 2:
Insert the clips into the note with the first clip joining the top two folds of the note and the second clip joining the bottom two folds of the note.
Step 3: Gently pull the ends of the note apart and watch the clips move across, join together and fly off.
4. Magnetic Card Trick
It’s an impressive trick that requires some practice.
What Your Child Needs
- A deck of cards
- Scissors or knife
- Glue
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Preparing the gimmick card: Use the scissors or the knife to cut a flap in the centre of one of the playing cards and make sure this flap is easily bendable. Glue this to the back of a regular card such that there is no overlap visible.
Step 2:
The trick begins with picking out more cards and fanning them out in your hand. The gimmick card is one of them, and you hold it at the bottom centre by gripping the flap between your index and ring fingers. Now put your palm facing down on the table with the gimmick card held in place and start slipping the rest of the cards between the gimmick card and your palm.
Step 3:
With the flap secure between your finger, raise your palm off the table, and the cards appear to magnetically stick to your hand.
5. The Floating Egg
It’s a simple but fascinating trick to show both kids and adults.
What Your Child Needs
- An egg
- A glass half filled with water
- ½ cup salt
- Teaspoon
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Drop the egg into the glass of water and show the crowd that it sinks to the bottom. Now your child asks the crowd on how to make the egg float in the glass. When nobody responds, he proceeds to add his magic mixture into the water.
Step 2:
Add teaspoons of salt to the water and stir it until it dissolves completely. Continue doing that until eventually, the egg floats to the top of the glass.
The trick here is buoyancy. The egg sinks into the plain water because its overall density is higher than water. As you dissolve the salt in the water, its density continues to increase. At a tipping point, the water’s density is higher than the egg’s and the latter floats.
6. Lifting an Ice Cube with a String Trick
Practice the trick to get to know the right amount of salt to add before you try it out.
What Your Child Needs
- Bowl of water
- Ice cubes
- A piece of thin string
- Some salt
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Hand the bowl containing the ice cube and the string to a volunteer from the crowd and ask them to lift the ice cube using just the string out of the bowl.
Step 2:
When they give up, your child steps in with a little salt in his fingers and sprinkle it over the ice cube. He then stretches the string over the ice cube and presses into it. After a few moments of waiting, he lifts up the string holding it from both ends, and the ice comes with it as well.
Salt combined with the pressure by the string lowers the melting point of ice. A while later it refreezes once the pressure is released and the thread gets trapped in the ice cube.
7. Magic Comb
This trick works on static electricity and is easier done by girls with long frizzy hair.
What Your Child Needs
- Plastic Comb
- Paper
- Ping pong ball
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Tell your friends that you have a magic comb that attracts many things. Prep your act by ripping up the paper into tiny bits. Run the plastic comb through the hair a few times and bring it close to the tiny paper bits. They get attracted to the comb and move.
Step 2:
Run the comb through the hair again and this time, bring it close to the ping pong ball. The ball rolls toward the comb. You can try this with balloons and a thin running column of water in your kitchen tap. They all get attracted to the comb.
The magic is due to the buildup of static electricity on the comb which causes certain objects to get attracted to it.
8. Disappearing Coin
This one is a bit challenging among the coin magic tricks for kids and requires sleight of hand.
What Your Child Needs
- A large coin
- Ensure your shirt is tucked into your pants.
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Grab the back of your neck with your left hand with the elbow slightly lower than the shoulder level.
Now, tell your friends that you’ll make the coin disappear just by rubbing it on your elbow. Hold the coin so that it is not clearly visible and as you start rubbing it, drop it to the ground. Say that it didn’t work the first time.
Step 2:
Pick up the coin with your left hand and pretend to put it in your right. Now go back to grab the back of your neck and drop the coin in your shirt.
Step 3:
Rub the left elbow a little and show them your empty hand. The coin has disappeared.
9. Floating Needle Trick
This is one of those easy magic tricks for kids to do at school which also has some physics lessons to learn from.
What Your Child Needs
- A bowl or glass full of water
- A needle
- Some tissue or toilet paper
How to Perform The Trick
Step 1:
You ask volunteers to try to float the needle in the bowl of water, and they will fail. Now you take the toilet paper and cut out a rectangular piece that is a little longer than the length of the needle.
Step 2:
Float the toilet paper in the bowl. You’ll notice that it gets wet immediately. Now gently lower the needle on top of the toilet paper. The buoyancy at this point is good enough to keep the needle and paper afloat.
Step 3:
You can wait for the paper to fully absorb all the water and sink on its own. Alternatively, you can speed it up a little and gently push the edges of the paper into the water and help it sink. You’ll see that the needle remains floating.
This trick works because of the surface tension of water. When you allow the water to form a film below the needle, it’s strong enough to support its weight.
10. Telekinesis
Telekinesis is the alleged ability to move objects using one’s mind and a great magic trick for kids.
What Your Child Needs
- A paperclip
- A magnet
- Thin cardboard
How to Perform the Trick
Step 1:
Begin by saying this performance shows your ability to move a paper clip with your mind. Place the paper clip on top of the cardboard and hold the magnet under the cardboard with your left hand such that the clip is under the influence of the magnet.
Step 2:
Pretend to will the paper clip to move across the cardboard sheet as your right hand hovers over the clip seeming to control it. The clip moves about as the left hand underneath holding the magnet guides it across the sheet in sync with your right hand.
Tips on Performing Magic Tricks and Preparing Your Child for Magic Show
If your child is serious about learning magic it is important for them to learn the two most important rules of magic;
- Magicians never, ever reveal their secret
- Repeat till you are proficient and repeat some more
Here are 5 tips on preparing your child to be a magician:
- The secret to being a good magician is how well you can get your audience involved in the performance. Your child needs to learn how to deceive and distract while they work their sleight of hand. Although math magic tricks for kids can be entertaining, nothing wows the crowd like a good optical illusion. So prepare them with a good bag of tricks.
- Learn some real skills; while many of the beginner magicians rely on gadgets and concealed devices to help them with their tricks, their gimmicks can break without warning. Therefore to become a good magician they need to learn how to pull off tricks without using gimmicks.
- Practice makes perfect; this law is universal to building any new skill, and the same goes with magic. Your child needs to practice until the moves of the trick become muscle memory and they can pull it off without thinking much about it.
- It takes time to become a good magician. Tricks will always go wrong the first few attempts, and it’s easy to get discouraged. Therefore, help your child to understand that it takes time and practice to get there.
- Keep it simple in the beginning. Many of the tricks involve complicated movements and understanding of the science behind it. Therefore, start with simple ones and build up to great acts.
With plenty of practice and a passionate fascination with the subject, it is possible to wow any crowd with your magic.
