Warm water + bouillon cube = Soup.

A great part of the child's life is centered around FOOD. And so is mother's: even with freezers, frozen foods, instant puddings and box mixes, mothers are still spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Since children enjoy anything that transforms in the making, they love to help in the preparation of food. Sometimes they can make something special for themselves, and sometimes they can help in preparing the family meal. The list has been divided into these two categories, and with few exceptions, these are all things children can make without using the stove.

How Children Can Fix Their Own Lunch or Snack

Colored water: Very young children delight in drinking water which has been colored with a few drops of food coloring. They are usually happy with this until they find out about Kool-Aid.

Colored ice: Freeze colored water in an ice-cube tray. When you add sticks (toothpicks, skewers, or sucker sticks), you have popsicles.

Jello: Jello can be dissolved with hot water from the tap instead of boiling water from the stove. Some children like to drink their jello before it hardens; some like it straight from the package.

Soup: A bouillon cube dissolved in a cup of hot tap water makes soup. They can stir to their heart's content

Toast and sandwiches: They can spread their own peanut butter and jelly. They can butter toast from an automatic toaster, and with a little cinnamon and sugar have cinnamon toast. They can peel and chop hard-cooked eggs for an egg-salad sandwich.

Milk and cocoa: Children can add any prepared chocolate mixture to milk for hot or cold drinks.

Frozen juices: Once the can is open and the child can count to three, he can mix orange juice or lemonade.

Fruit salad: They can cut pineapple chunks, pieces of apple and bananas, peaches or pears with a silver knife.

Vegetable salad: Foods that are often not attractive to children, such as peas, green beans, asparagus and beets, take on a new look after the child has arranged them on skewers or toothpicks.

Popcorn: What the child can contribute here depends upon the type of popper you use. Popping corn is a family affair.