We did LOTW two falls ago with my then dd3. I also printed out the Bible inRhyme pages and just added it to my poster. The kids enjoyed it, although we only made it through about half the alphabet before we were all bored. I didn't do all the extra book suggestions. Like you, I wanted to create an opportunity for establishing a "learning" time. I guess it didn't work since we quit.
This last year we did BFIAR and enjoyed it. I mostly used it as a book list. We did some of the activities. I agree much of it was talky. For [u]Ask Mr. Bear[u] we made puppets out of felt and popsicle sticks so the kids could retell the story. One of the activities was to make a sorting game of all the animals in the stories. We didn't do this, but I might the next time I use it, with my younger children. HTH you some. I know it's kinda rambly