My kids love magic tricks. In fact, I don’t know a child that doesn’t love magic tricks! Kids love to believe in magic, so by showing them clever tricks we help to keep that belief alive. Kids find some magic tricks way more exciting than others though. These 4 tricks are the ones I’ve found to be the most popular with my kids:

The Disappearing Coin

To do the disappearing coin trick, all you need is a piece of foil, a coin, and a square of paper big enough to cover the coin.

  1. Make an impression on the foil by gently pressing the coin into it. Cut off excess foil so it looks like the coin.
  2. When you have an audience, show the coin to the audience and tell them that it’s going to disappear. Put the paper over the quarter, say some magic words, and take the paper away.
  3. The ‘coin’ will still be there. Apologise and try again. After two or three goes, say you’re not going to bother anymore and crumple up the paper so it hides the coin.
  4. It’ll look like the coin has finally disappeared if you crush the paper into a tiny ball.

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The Powerful Toothpick

For this trick you need a foil pie plate, toothpicks, washing up liquid, and water.

  1. Fill your plate with enough water to cover the bottom.
  2. Arrange your picks so they are in a square in the middle of your foil plate. Their tips should overlap.
  3. Dip a separate toothpick in washing up liquid.
  4. Get your audience to gather around the plate on a table, and tell them you’re going to use your powers to separate all of the picks without touching them.
  5. Say some magic words and dip the pick dipped in washing up liquid into the middle of the square. The soap will make the other picks fly away from each other!

The Mind Reading Crayon

This is a really simple trick and all you need is a box of crayons. Kids love this!

  1. Hold the crayons in a box behind your back.
  2. Tell your child to pick a colour out and put it in your left hand, with your hands still behind your back.
  3. Turn around to face your child and tell them you’re going to guess the colour of the crayon.
  4. Scrape some of the colour off the crayon under a nail on your right hand.
  5. Pretend to read your child’s mind while waving your right hand about in front of them. Check the colour of the crayon under your nail and then guess correctly!

Linking Paper Clips

For this trick, all you need is a note and two regular paper clips. When you’ve finished this trick and got a taste for magic, you could look for professional supplies with a shop like MagicNevin. Your tricks will then look much more professional!

  1. Fold your note into an  S shape.
  2. On one end of the note, attach your paper clip with the short side facing you, and then do the same on the other side. Make sure they aren’t near the fold.
  3. When you pull the note, the clips will snap up and magically become attached!

Have fun!