These magic kits and props promise lots of fun for the whole family—and provide the perfect context to discuss the work of magician James Randi and detective Rose Mackenberg (an associate of Harry Houdini) to debunk paranormal claims. This affordable kit is designed for small hands and doesn’t require incredible dexterity for audience raves. It features 25 tricks that include an optical illusion (a nice segway to talking about our brains), special contraptions (like a box and drawer that makes crayons vanish and reappear), and of course a magic wand. Online tutorials give kids everything they need to know to perform for you. If your child is at an age where they ask tons of questions and offer their own theories for answers, challenging them to explain the tricks to you (after they amaze you, of course), will be fun and a good lesson in logical thinking. If your kid readily explores their interests without prompting and wants to practice magic “like real magicians,” this trick card deck (called a stripper deck) is an excellent choice. It looks just like a classic 52 card deck, with one key difference: the cards are very slightly tapered. If you subtly flip over a card your spectator chooses and put it back in the deck, you can always find it because part of the card will be wider than the rest of the deck. Kids can learn the fine motor skills that sleight of hand requires, and develop their own tricks based on the concept when they’ve mastered the ten tricks that come with the set. Some of the instructions are online. The title of this kit says it all: magic is about fooling people for entertainment, not mysticism and pseudoscience. If your older child can handle a little coarse language, get them this magic kit. The kit itself is appropriate for ages 8 and up and contains 200 tricks including a classic ball-in-cup shell game. What sets it apart is that Penn & Teller are skeptics who made a TV series called BS! which is available to stream and covers vaccinations, ESP, psychics, and astrology through the lens of science and fact. (Be aware that not all episodes will be age appropriate.)
