Let me start by saying, I love magic. I grew up loving magic, but probably in a way different to most here. I saw magic on the tv and loved it, but it never crossed my mind that I could do what I was seeing (probably because of money) so it never really became a hobby. That is until about 18 months ago.
My niece was 4 at the time and as any uncle does, I spoiled her rotten, probably a little too much. Just giving gifts or handing her money gradually got less of a reaction (don't worry, she isn't a brat it just wasn't Wow when I gave her money), so again I did as any uncle does and found money behind her ears. It blew her mind! She then tried to get money from her own ear and when she couldn't she asked how I did it. I hesitated, then said, "Magic."
From that moment my niece has loved magic and always asks me to show her magic, so I bought a deck of cards and learned some basic tricks. Again, mind was blown! I learned some more stuff, same result. The great thing is that as much as she loved seeing the magic, I love learning it and performing it for her, to the point where magic still isn't a hobby for me, it is an obsession. I now have a pretty solid repertoire (yes I use gimmicks and gaffs, it may be "cheating" but if the effect blows her tiny little mind then I'm happy) including a cool ambitious card routine, torn and restored, signed card in bottle, rising card, and some other routines that I made up for her. I rotate the effects and constantly change them up a bit so that she isn't seeing the same thing each week and so far things are going great.
However, one thing I didn't count on, which I should have after catching her trying to get money from behind her ears so many times, is that eventually she would want to know how things are done. She tries to do magic but of course nothing happens so she gets disheartened and asks how come she can't do magic. I've tried countless lines, "A wizard gave me magic powers.", "You don't get magic powers until you are older.", etc. but after performing the dragonfly rings for her recently she was adamant that she could learn magic because she saw a young character on Dora the Explorer practice and practice and eventually could do the linking rings.
The problem to me is two-fold. First, she is nearly 6 years old, and as intelligent as she is I'm not sure she would be able to learn tricks either to the level that she would be happy with or the easier ones to learn would bore her. Second, she is not even 6 years old yet, I would love to teach her magic one day, but I would like magic to stay magical a while longer because once I clue her in I'm not going to get to see the look of amazement on her face when she believes she is seeing real life fairy dust and unicorns magic, instead everything will just be a set of moves where if you do A and then B, you get to C.
Sorry for the rambling but my question is, if you were in my shoes how would you delay her and keep the interest in magic purely as a spectator, at least for the next couple of years?
Thanks for reading.
My niece was 4 at the time and as any uncle does, I spoiled her rotten, probably a little too much. Just giving gifts or handing her money gradually got less of a reaction (don't worry, she isn't a brat it just wasn't Wow when I gave her money), so again I did as any uncle does and found money behind her ears. It blew her mind! She then tried to get money from her own ear and when she couldn't she asked how I did it. I hesitated, then said, "Magic."
From that moment my niece has loved magic and always asks me to show her magic, so I bought a deck of cards and learned some basic tricks. Again, mind was blown! I learned some more stuff, same result. The great thing is that as much as she loved seeing the magic, I love learning it and performing it for her, to the point where magic still isn't a hobby for me, it is an obsession. I now have a pretty solid repertoire (yes I use gimmicks and gaffs, it may be "cheating" but if the effect blows her tiny little mind then I'm happy) including a cool ambitious card routine, torn and restored, signed card in bottle, rising card, and some other routines that I made up for her. I rotate the effects and constantly change them up a bit so that she isn't seeing the same thing each week and so far things are going great.
However, one thing I didn't count on, which I should have after catching her trying to get money from behind her ears so many times, is that eventually she would want to know how things are done. She tries to do magic but of course nothing happens so she gets disheartened and asks how come she can't do magic. I've tried countless lines, "A wizard gave me magic powers.", "You don't get magic powers until you are older.", etc. but after performing the dragonfly rings for her recently she was adamant that she could learn magic because she saw a young character on Dora the Explorer practice and practice and eventually could do the linking rings.
The problem to me is two-fold. First, she is nearly 6 years old, and as intelligent as she is I'm not sure she would be able to learn tricks either to the level that she would be happy with or the easier ones to learn would bore her. Second, she is not even 6 years old yet, I would love to teach her magic one day, but I would like magic to stay magical a while longer because once I clue her in I'm not going to get to see the look of amazement on her face when she believes she is seeing real life fairy dust and unicorns magic, instead everything will just be a set of moves where if you do A and then B, you get to C.
Sorry for the rambling but my question is, if you were in my shoes how would you delay her and keep the interest in magic purely as a spectator, at least for the next couple of years?
Thanks for reading.