Song Helps for How Firm A Foundation Hymns pg. 85

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by telstar logistics march 2008

What telstar has to say about this picture, " A Strong Foundation is not a Metaphor : This is a semi-regular thing to see in San Francisco... an old house getting a new foundation. Many old foundations were built with brick masonry, which is bad in earthquakes. Or, even worse, they were built with concrete that used sand from Ocean Beach. All the impurities in the beach sand eventually cause the foundation to crumble. (That's what happened at our house.)Anyway, this is how it's done: You don't actually raise the house... you just shore it in place, remove the old foundation, then rebuild.South Van Ness at 20th Street, San Francisco"

* Sister Webb recently commented and I loved the idea. It comes from Sister Tripp (They are part of a military branch from Seoul, South Korea). It is as follows, "Something interesting that our singing time lady did was she brought a cup of jello and turned it upside down on a plate so that the jello stayed in the shape of the cup. Then she tried to build a house on it using little building blocks. When that didn't work she took out something square and firm wrapped in brown paper, then built a house on it. Of course that worked. So she had one of the kids come up and unwrap the firm foundation and it was a hardback copy of the Book of Mormon." This would also make a great family home evening and I look forward to doing so! Thanks ladies for sharing!!

* Have a large box and wrap it neatly in brown paper. This is our foundation. Add black paper cracks all over. As the children learn the song, they can take away cracks.


* JENGA Time. If you have the wooden JENGA block game at home, bring it in. Ask a child to come up and take all the bottom blocks out. What happens? A foundation needs to be firm, solid and immovable. Just like Jesus!

* Bring in a little doll house. (I would use our fisher price little people doll house) Tape a picture of Christ to the home and say Christ is the foundation of this home. As they sing, watch for children who are making an effort to sing. Then invite them up to use a blow dryer to try to blow the house down.


Reference the scripture Helaman 5:12, "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."


* Have a pebble and rocks of different sizes. Again, reference Helaman 5:12 but stress "rock". As they learn the song, invite children up to choose a rock based on their singing. The best singing gets the biggest rock. Once the song is learned, give them each a rock to remember what a wonderful job they did learning the song. Also to remember, when we learn the hymns we strengthen our personal testimonies and build stronger foundations based on Christ.


* Hide 6 bricks throughout the room. As the children make an effort to sing and learn the words, invite them to find bricks and bring up to make a foundation.


* A great idea from the friend by Laurel Rohlfing:
“Sharing Time: Build upon My Rock,” Friend, Feb 1991, 44
"Demonstrate how a house on a rock remains standing. Make two simple houses out of lightweight cardboard. In a large dishpan, put one house on a pile of sand and securely tape the other house to a rock. Pour a “flood” of water into the pan and show that the water will wash away the sand but that the house on the rock will be safe."
Reference 3 Nephi 14:24-27 and stress Jesus as our rock and foundation.