👶 Magic with a little brother or sister in the room

What the choking notes mean

Some props are small enough to choke on: coins, dice, paperclips, pom-poms and toothpicks. Every trick that uses one carries a note on its card for brothers and sisters under 4, and those notes are read off the props themselves, so no trick can forget one. None of those tricks is offered below kindergarten.

The notes say the same thing in different words: keep the small things away from little ones, off the floor, and pick them all up afterwards. The shop's guidance follows the American Academy of Pediatrics' advice on choking.

Tricks with nothing small

These have no small parts at all, so they suit a table with a toddler at it:

• The Rubber Pencil: Apprentice, 1 minute to learn, ages 5 to 9.
• The Floating Pencil: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 9.
• The Ghost Pencil: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 10.
• Thumb Off: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 8.
• The Salt Shaker Balance: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 10.
• The Spooky Floating Cup: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 10.
• The Bending Spoon: Apprentice, 3 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 10.
• The Vanishing Pencil: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 9.
• The Crayon Mind Reader: Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 9.
• The Stretching Finger: Apprentice, 3 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 9.

When the audience is very young

Two- and three-year-olds love magic, but they love it best big and simple: a pencil that goes rubbery, a thumb that comes off, a finger that stretches. Keep it short, keep the props in your hands, and let them clap. The no-prop tricks are perfect, because there is nothing to grab.

The no-props page has every trick that needs nothing but hands, and the 5-year-olds page the ones a kindergartner can perform.

After the show

Count the props back in before anybody leaves the table: two coins out means two coins back. A small box or an envelope for each trick's props makes that quick, and it keeps the show kit together for next time.

If a little one wants to be a magician too, give them a part with nothing small in it: the magic word, the drum roll, or holding the hat. Being on stage is the fun, and it keeps them out of the props.