10 Magic Tricks any Child Can Learn

Everyone it seems is fascinated by magicians. We marvel at sleight-of-hand tricks, disappearing acts, and all manner of magic. It delights us to attempt to explain what appears inexplicable. Children are captivated by this mastery of illusion. So we’ve put together a list of 10 magic tricks that any child can learn to do themselves:

1. The Ice-Making Cup – Using an ordinary teacup, a sponge, a water pitcher and some ice cubes, you can stymie your friends. Pour water from the pitcher into the cup, turn the cup upside down, and ice cubes fall out instead of water! The trick? Place the sponge at the bottom of the cup first with the ice cubes on top. The sponge will absorb the water, and only the ice cubes sitting on top of the sponge will fall out.
2. The Football Game Card Trick – In this trick, you use only the Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks from a regular deck of cards. When you’re finished with this trick, your friends will be amazed.
3. The Rubber Pencil – Hold a pencil by the end, very loosely in your hand between your thumb and forefinger. Move your hand up and down in a vertical motion, letting the pencil bounce freely in your grip. The pencil will appear to bend right before your eyes.
4. A Hole in Your Hand – Take a paper towel tube and look through it with your right eye. Place your left hand against the tube with your palm facing you. Look straight ahead with both eyes open. What the …?
5. The Disappearing Coin – This one is sneaky and takes just a little bit of preparation to mystify your friends. The glass seems to send that coin into oblivion.
6. Guessing the Card Trick – Set this one up by taking a deck of cards and turning the bottom card face up. Have someone pick a card from the deck and show it to the audience. While the audience is studying the card, flip the deck over. When your subject puts the card face down back into the deck, it will be the only one facing in that direction. Now amaze your friends by “guessing” which card they picked.
7. Parting the Pepper – For this one, you will need some soap, a glass or cup of water and some pepper. Before doing the trick, make sure you’ve rubbed your finger with the soap. Pour some pepper into the glass of water and ask your friends to part the pepper with their finger. When they put their fingers in the water, it won’t work. Then you do it with your soap finger and – abracadabra – it’s magic.
8. ESP Test Video – Now here’s a trick that is just plain awesome. The trick is explained here and the actual video that you will use to baffle your friends is here. Have a blast with this one, kids.
9. Prediction Card – Here is an easy card trick using some sleigh-of-hand trickery. You can use anything in place of the business card as long as it’s something you can write your prediction on.
10. Mind Reader – Write down the words Denmark, kangaroo, and orange on a sheet of paper and set it aside. Ask someone from the audience to pick a number from 1 to 9, then have them multiply that number by 9. Now have them add the two digits of that answer together, then subtract 5 from that number. Ex. If they choose the number 5, then multiply by 9, they get 45; then they add the 4 and the 5 to get 9, and so forth. Now for the fun part. Tell them to take the letter that corresponds to their final number (A=1, B=2, etc.) and think of a country that starts with that letter. Next, ask them to think of ananimal that starts with the last letter of that country’s name. Finally, have them think of the name of afruit that starts with the last letter of the animal’s name. Stun your friends now by producing that sheet of paper with your “predictions”.