Magic tricks for kids

The six shelves of the shop

• The Everyday Shelf (16 tricks). Tricks with things around the house: pencils, cups, rubber bands, spoons. Start with the rubber pencil trick, the floating pencil trick and the ghost pencil trick.
• The Card Cabinet (16 tricks). Easy card tricks that find, predict and switch cards. Start with the key card trick, the 21 card trick and the four aces trick.
• The Coin Counter (14 tricks). Make coins vanish, appear and jump. Start with the coin through a small hole, the forehead coin trick and which hand? coin trick.
• The Mind Reader's Corner (16 tricks). Guess numbers, predict choices and read minds, with maths doing the work. Start with think of a number, the 1089 trick and the x-ray dice trick.
• The Potion Lab (10 tricks). Kitchen science that looks exactly like magic. Start with the pepper and soap trick, the arrow flip trick and the disappearing coin in water.
• The Paper and String Drawer (8 tricks). Folding, tearing, looping and knot tricks. Start with the hole in your hand illusion, the linking paper clips and the instant knot.

What the levels mean

A level 1 trick works the first try, which is the whole point: all a child's attention can go on performing instead of on their hands. 44 of the 80 tricks here are level 1.

Magic tricks with no props at all

8 of these need nothing but your voice and your hands, which makes them the ones to learn for a car journey, a queue or a dinner table: the thumb off trick, the stretching finger, eleven fingers, think of a number, the grey elephant in denmark, the secret partner code, the nine times fingers and the knuckle calendar.

What to learn next, in order

• Your first five minutes. Three tricks you can do before tea. the rubber pencil trick → the hole in your hand illusion → the pepper and soap trick
• First card tricks. Learn the key card, then build on it. the key card trick → the four aces trick → the 21 card trick → the spelling card trick
• The coin ladder. From a two-minute prank to a real vanish. the forehead coin trick → which hand? coin trick → the coin through a small hole → the coin fold
• The mind reader's path. Maths doing all the work, hardest last. think of a number → the grey elephant in denmark → the x-ray dice trick → the calculator trick → the 1089 trick
• The science show. Four potions in a row, lights down at the end. the arrow flip trick → the disappearing coin in water → the pepper and soap trick → the glowing water trick
• Show closers. The strongest finishers in the shop. the spelling card trick → walk through a piece of paper → the glowing water trick → the coin fold

Safety in the Magic Shop

Every step that uses something hot or a bright light is a grown-up's step, whatever the child's age, and Flick says so out loud before it. There is no fire, no flame and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the shop: scissors cut paper, card and string only, and a cutting step says to ask a grown-up. No trick asks a child to put anything in a mouth, a nose or an ear. Tricks with coins, dice, paperclips or pom-poms carry the AAP's choking note for brothers and sisters under 4, and none of them is offered below kindergarten. The kitchen-science tricks use only food-safe things, and a potion is always for looking at, not for drinking.

Questions parents ask

Are the magic tricks free?

The Magic Shop is free, with no ads and no sign-up. What your child has, has learned and has performed stays on their own device and is never sent anywhere, so there is nothing to lose and no account to make.

What age can a child start doing magic tricks?

About five, with a grown-up nearby. 22 of these tricks start at kindergarten or below, and the easiest of them — the rubber pencil trick, the hole in your hand illusion and the forehead coin trick — take under five minutes. By seven or eight most children can manage card and coin tricks, and by about ten a real secret move.

Do we need to buy a magic set?

No. Every trick here is done with a pencil, a coin, a deck of cards, a rubber band, a cup, paper, string, dice, a calculator or a few kitchen things. If your child still loves magic after a few weeks, a kit or a magic book from the library is a good next step.

Which trick should a beginner learn first?

The Rubber Pencil, which takes a minute and needs only a pencil. Then Pepper Scatter, which works every single time, and the key card trick, the first secret most card magicians ever learn.

Is it bad for children to learn that magic isn't real?

Magic is a performance art, and that is how the whole shop talks about it. Nothing here claims to be a power. What a child gets instead is a secret worth keeping, something to practise, and a reason to stand up in front of people — and the wonder on the other side of it is real enough.

More: easy magic tricks for kids by age, Ask the Magician with 40 questions answered, Magic School, and how to put on a magic show.