My youngest wants to imitate daddy and goes through some of the moves. But, of course is not able to do any sleight requiring much dexterity. Is there a self-working trick with cards that you think would work? If the deck needs to be preset, I could help her, but I am looking for something that I could have her do mostly by herself that would WOW adults. I am going through the Giobbi Card College Light, and there are many that pretty much work themselves, but still require a bit of maturity that is just beyond her. Surely I am not the first with this type of request. Thanks for the suggestions.

I think Gemini Twins is probably right about perfect. No real setup, quick to perform, baffling to everyone I've done it for, and my nine year old daughter loves it.

I agree, Gemini Twins does sound perfect, since the setup is so simple, and the spectator can do the majority of the handling.

I prefer the idea of Lennart Green's stolen cards, you could either make a deck up with her, and buy lots of fun childrens playing cards. Or, use some of her cards, but lots of different cards from your decks, I like the idea of her telling people that she took 1 card from each of your packs.

Thanks. I actually own the Stolen Cards. I'll see if she can do that.

Edit: as I am going back through myself, I can picture my 8 or 11 year old, but the 5 would be a bit of a stretch.

Industrial Revilation! She can do it and Blow minds!

With a sharp knife??? I'm sure she would blow minds with that one.

Similar to Gemini Twins is Bob Longe's Three Card Surprise. Also easy and pretty baffling, if the reactions I got from my students today are any kind of indication. Only one tricky (but not hard or really requiring manual dexterity) move but otherwise based on o** a***d principle. My four year old understood it.

http://boyslife.org/hobbies-projects/mag......c-trick/
This one is very simple to perform, and allows working on the presentation. This fools adults as well, if presented properly.

You can also try Poker Players Picnic from Royal Road to Card magic. My 6 years old learned to do it nicely after a short practice.
She even learned an easy false shuffle: she holds the cards facing up and shuffling from the middle of the deck.

No Drumorgan, no knife, I use a business card folded lengthwise. That gets it in spectators hands!

@RamiK
bonus points for the Scouting trick (I am an Eagle Scout and a Cubmaster) Very cool.

There is always the 21 card trick. It's been so long since I have done it that I almost forgot how it goes. I learned it when I was a kid and had a lot of fun with it.

From Scarne on Card Tricks there is a STRONG effect from Francis Carlisle called The Migrating Decks. This blows minds and is very easy.

Is there a magic trick that a five year old can perform that will AMAZE a group of adults? Unless your child is the magical equivalent of Mozart, probably not. (Maybe that's a good thing.)

Perhaps she could help you perform a magic trick, and you could structure the trick so that it looks like she does the magic. I'll bet she'll have more fun, and I KNOW that the adults are much more likely to get a kick out of it.

Barry, the more I work on this, the more I think I agree with you. At 5, the synapses are just not there yet.

On occasion, while doing walk around magic at a restaurant, there are some children really into magic and want to perform a trick. Sometimes they are anxious to show me one. I judge there seriousness and if they are repeat customers I will teach them something simple. For those special times I rely on two inexpensive books that I have, 1) Karl Fulves Easy-to-Do Magic Tricks for Children and 2) Karl Fulves Easy-to-Do Card Tricks for Children. Both of these books are designed for youngsters of all ages to perform magic. They use cards and common objects.

Of course using cards, the child has to have an awareness of numbers, colors, etc. With everyday objects they can quickly grasp several of those effects.

John

The Three Ace Trick, oldie but goodie.

Dru, you begin your post by “My youngest wants to imitate daddy”. When my kids asked me to teach them magic, I took this as another opportunity of spending good time with them. Sometimes, they want us to teach them, not for the ‘magic’. They just want to get to us by showing interest in things they know we like. Thinking about it this way, the magic itself is not that important. Just another way to look at it…

Simple card revelation with a one way deck

Not talking about a forcing deck obviously

here's the fun definition from Wikipedia --

A one-way deck is a deck of playing cards where the back of the cards has a pattern which can be oriented to have a "top" and "bottom". Magicians and card sharps can use the orientations of cards in one-way decks to encode information that allows them to perform card tricks.

A 5-year old could do wonders with a One Way deck;

and if the back design is subtle, even adults wouldn't figure it out!