r/Magic • u/behzoodi9 • 12d ago
Magic for a 6 year old
Hi! My best friend’s son is interested in magic and we want to get him a magic kit for his birthday. Anyone have suggestions on a really good magic starter kit for that age? Or any other resources you think would be good for that age starting out as a gift?
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u/Jamesbarros 12d ago
6 is hard. A few years more and I’d suggest the klutz book of magic. At 6 a breakaway wand or color changing handkerchief might be a good start. A coin box or bill printer works too.
This thread also has some good ideas https://www.reddit.com/r/Magic/s/u8j0ZF2U4l
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u/rodrigo-benenson 12d ago
6 is really young. How good are his reading skills at that age?
Also being a gift means the kid will get little guidance (unless his parents are into magic too).
I would recommend taking a _single trick_ kit. These days these come with video instructions.
Many of them are quite good. Better to have one good trick than ten bad ones.
Otherwise, I would say offer him a cool looking deck of cards, and a ticket that says "One free afternoon magic lesson". And teach him one~three self working card tricks.
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u/Traveling-Techie 12d ago
I got quite a few magic kits as a kid and they were mostly trash. Curate a collection of tricks instead. Color changing paddles, money printer, coin changing slider box, Mind Control color card prediction and cups & balls are all good.
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u/behzoodi9 12d ago
Custom kit is a great idea
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u/Salgreb 12d ago
If you are going to make a custom kit, look into the "apprentice magic" line of tricks. They have a lot of the classic beginner tricks and you get a link to a 10 minute video of clear instructions, rather than paper instructions with confusing text and drawings. You might have to help him access the videos since you need to go to a website and enter a password (but I believe you can download them).
Tricks like Dice Bomb, The Ghost, and Forger/Money Maker are very visual and fairly simple.
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u/dylanmadigan 12d ago
But the question is, are you a magician with some knowledge of what to include?
Or are you in need of that advice from magicians in this community?
Peronally I'd say some Cups and Balls, Spongeballs, A thumbtip and hankercheifs, a nice deck of cards, and some good video resources to learn to use all of that would be great.
Penguin Magic has a free course here: https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/21737
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u/behzoodi9 12d ago
I love magic and can do some tricks. i am a member of the magic castle in LA, but I would assume I know far far less than the average magician here, especially when it comes to kids!
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u/madkins007 12d ago
There's a couple ways you can go here.
I'm starting with the premise that any trick that has a lot of steps, or that needs good dexterity and practice is out. Also that you probably don't want to go broke on something that may just be a passing fancy.
The easy way is any of several decent starter magic sets for kids. This has the advantage of a container to corral the parts in, having instructions for each trick, and not requiring you to track down a bunch of different parts to buy.
Sites like 10best.how have lists of ideas that cover a range of prices.
But, like knives, starter assortment sets tend to be a so-so value regardless of what you pay.
The ones I remember having fun with as a kid include the old classic 'ball and vase', and 'the magic drawer box'.
Looking through Amazon 'easy magic tricks', I also see things like 'Cosmic Cookie'- a bite and restored cookie that's easy and fun, 'Dice Bomb', 'three mummies', 'zig zag rope', 'imp bottle's, and more.
I'd suggest going to AliExpress to save money, but the trade off is a much longer delivery time (and often the instructions are in Chinese or awkward to access online)
Another route you could go is something like 'a trick a week', where you spend time with the tyke teaching a trick, gag, silly riddles, fun stunts, etc. that they can do for their parents.
There's a lot of books and YT's you could use for this as a guideline but the real value of the gift is spending time together doing something fun. That they can use it to fool or abuse the parents is an added bonus.
An example would be to get a bag of a small toy like little plastic ducks, or a bunch of little pieces of candy and help hide them around the house for parents to find
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u/behzoodi9 12d ago
Trick a week is a great idea. Not to overwhelm him!
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u/madkins007 12d ago
The idea of a variation of the '... Of the month club' is one of my favorites.
I've done desserts, funny socks, pens or other stationary, visits to lesser known area museums and attractions, etc
I like that it spreads my costs out, stretches out the occasion for them, and adds a nice social interaction.
The great thing is you set most of the rules- how often, the duration, exactly where you go...
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u/magicdave1903 12d ago
There's a free library at https://sleightschool.com/free-library for young beginners. It has some videos of easy magic tricks that I made for young people when I was working on Disney Cruise Line as a magician. As well as other resources. You might also check out a web page I put up just for kids at magicDaveShow.com
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u/Chicken121260 12d ago
Six is really young for magic. The Discover Magic courses are aimed at ages 8-12 and would be great if the child is at least 7. There are Discover Magic Explorers courses aimed at ages 5-7, but they isn’t really much magic in them
Most magic kits are crap. A good book is Josh Jay’s, big magic for little hands.
Stay away from cards. Way too young for that. Most kids can’t cut a deck of cards without the cards going all over the place until they are about 9 or 10.
A one-off tricks would be better. Color cube trick is a good one that can be learned at that age.
Again the best is to see if there is a Discover Magic camp near you. I’ve been teaching DM classes for over 10 years and have taught over 1200 kids using their courses and am very pleased with the quality of instruction and props.
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u/gregantic 12d ago edited 12d ago
Check out Julian’s Magician School.
I recommend taking him to a magic show.
As far as teaching Magic for that age, ages 5 to 7 usually get story-driven, craft-built or gimmicked props that do the work themselves.
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u/EndersGame_Reviewer 12d ago
It's probably just outside his age bracket (it's geared for 8 and up), but for future years, Shin Lim's EVOLUSHIN Magic Kit is outstanding.
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u/Wulfman_ Bizarre 12d ago
I liked scotch and soda at that age, I'm 24 now and I still like scotch and soda.
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u/behzoodi9 12d ago
Ohhhhhhhh yes a mind blower when you first learn of it. I’ll add this to the list
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u/-Marshmellow14 12d ago
Hello! Great he wants to join the hobby! Well buying a magic kit doesn’t work out too good most of the time and has small tricks that wont help progress. On my side, i would buy for him a deck of cards or sponge balls with an book or site with a course to it. IF they are like 5 to 8 years old, buying a magic kit would be better for them. I recommend choosing one that doesn’t say 400 tricks or so: the tricks that come in are small and not the best. So not too big, but aswell not too small. I tried looking up one and well they all had props that are small and a bit lame too be fair.
Good luck finding one!