The greatest thing about magic is seeing people’s reactions when you perform some seemingly impossible feat, with an ordinary looking object or deck of cards.
The fun becomes ten-fold when you start sharing and ‘teaching’ some magic with a preschooler.
Now of course they don’t have the dexterity to manipulate cards or perform sleight of hand with coins, sponges or ropes – but the advantage they do have is a brilliant imagination and an unquestionable belief in anything you do.
I often practice my magic tricks with my little girl, she finds it absolutely fascinating to watch, and I love that I get to break one of the basic magicians’ rules, because I get “Do it again Mummy” over and over.
Not content with watching me do the magic, she wants to have a turn, so I find her own deck of cards that she is allowed to play with (mine are not for general play), then off she goes.
“Pick a card, any card” she says enthusiastically! I do, and then return it somewhere in the deck and she proceeds to ‘magically change it’ into another card from the deck.
Now it’s fair to say she hasn’t quite mastered the point of finding the same card yet, but nonetheless it’s priceless, so I congratulate her and she thinks she’s magic. (Well she is!)
We also have lots of fun making things appear and disappear. She is so easily distracted (a well known magicians trade secret) so we place a toy on the floor, cover it with a blanket and while she helps to smooth it out, I can remove the toy without her noticing.
When she pulls the blanket away, the look on her face is brilliant! She is completely astonished and excited that she can do magic!
Bringing the toy back (by reversing the procedure) brings the same reaction, time and time again.
Magic is great fun with kids of all ages and there are so many easy ways to entertain them and involve them with magic tricks.
A great place to start is www.bestmagictricksforkids.com which has lots of ideas for playing with kids and introducing them to magic.
