April 1994

Between friends

Summer Vacation Strategies

Planning your summer vacation is as easy as one, two, three. For a new and different experience, try our trio of strategies: One, avoid crowds by enjoying the attractions of a smaller city.

Successful Discipline

"What should I do when my son won't eat what I prepare?" asks Bobby's mother.

Choosing the Best School

Many parents, because of a family move or because their state laws now allow them to, are able to choose a school for their children. If you're trying to select the best place for your kids, or if you just want to give your neighborhood school a checkup, our good-school guidelines can help.

Vaccine Update

HEALTH ALERT

Iron Dangers for Kids

The No Stones Diet

IMPLANTS SCORE WELL

The Youngest Coffee Drinkers

How low should you go to lose weight?

Thinking of starting a very low-calorie (under 1,000 calories per day) diet program? Unless your doctor urges one on you for medical reasons, you might want to think again. These programs can help you lose weight, but the odds are firmly against keeping the weight off.

Take a Senior to Lunch

Roses for Mom

Once again, Harry and David and Jackson & Perkins are helping us help homeless families through The Better Homes Fund. Founded by the editors of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in 1988 to help homeless families throughout the country, The Fund to date has awarded 146 grants to 99 programs in 34 states.

Great Gift For Mother's Day

Celebrate spring

EARLY SPRING

Home Improvement Contest

GET BIG BENEFITS-- AND BIG BUCKS-- FROM YOUR NEXT HOME FIX-UP PROJECT. YOU MAY WIN A TOP AWARD, AND YOUR PROJECT MAY APPEAR IN OUR MAGAZINE!

Country Armoire

easy-care shrubs and vines

Whatever your landscape needs, flowering shrubs and vines can tackle the challenge. Whether you want to create a hedge, hide a shed, or cover a trellis, this sampling of easy-to-grow plants can fill the bill.

Paradise

A little ingenuity can transform even the tiniest yard into a blooming landscape. Georgia gardener Esther Stokes created a color-filled bonanza in a sloping yard that was too small and too shady. The heavy clay soil supports a spectacular collection of mini gardens-- a cutting garden, a woodland area, a secret garden, and perennial beds.

Everyday escape

A few hundred yards beyond the front windows of Jeff and Solveig Peck's Seattle-area home, the tides of Puget Sound quietly drift in and then, predictably, creep away again. Obviously under the water's influence, the Pecks have created a home that's as easygoing, natural-- even as cyclical-- as the sea itself.

Trouble at the Tap

MOST OF OUR NATION'S WATER MAY BE SAFE, BUT THE EXCEPTIONS ARE SCARY.

Prizewinning new homes

It isn't every day you build your dream home, so why not start with a blue-ribbon plan? The four homes on these pages won high praise from a panel of experts who judged the 1993 Best In American Living Awards, a design competition sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders, Professional Builder, and Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

A kitchen in living color

Spirit-lifting colors can electrify your kitchen, day or night. Even before you've sipped that first cup of coffee, this kitchen's cheery palette of primary hues starts the day off right. As nighttime rolls around, the bold rainbow of color-- punctuated by a brilliant neon parrot-- offers an enchanting atmosphere for after-hours entertaining.

auto update

Chrysler has done it again, adding a smashing subcompact, the Neon, to its innovative LH platform fleet. Like its popular predecessors, the front-wheel-drive Neon cruises down the road with a sturdy cab-forward stance, wheels square to the corners for surefooted handling and a roomy interior. The zippy 2.0-liter, 16-valve engine with single overhead camshaft delivers 132 horsepower and 129 foot-pounds of torque. An even zippier twin-cam engine will be available this fall. Badged as a Plymouth or a Dodge, the Neon aims its perky headlights and bright colors straight at entry-level buyers-- singles and young families looking for fun and a style statement in a four-door sedan at an affordable price.

Setting Up an Aquarium

If you want something fishy in your life, here's how to get off on the right fin, uh, foot, with an aquarium.

The Shopper Mart

Discover the ease and pleasure of shopping mail. Order from the convenience of your own home with complete confidence.

Stacking Bookcase

The man next door

When Liz Randall reported that her daughter and new husband were having compatibility problems, I expressed hope for the relationship. "Oh, their relationship is fine," responded Liz. "It's their computers that aren't compatible."