FIAR - How to make it work

I love the idea of learning through literature and FIAR seems like an ideal way to do that with a preschooler. Yet for some bizarre reason, it is not working for us.
Every time I try, I select a great book and find neat activities to go with it. The problem comes in that we never seem to do the activities. Why you ask? Well I am not really sure. Probably poor planning on my part.

To solve this unfortunate problem, we are going to try something new. We are currently on vacation so not doing any formal work at all. This break gives me some time to get my materials all organized.

I am making a tub to keep all our FIAR supplies. In this tub will be the book of the week, our vocabulary journal, our flag book, and all the supplies for the current week. To organize the activities for each book, I am planning to try to do a lapbook for each.

In this prepatory phase I am collecting all the printables and activities for our first 5 books and organizing what the lapbooks will look like.


Our first lapbook will be Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. This will be our first lapbook ever. I hope it works and is enjoyed. Heather over at Blog, She Wrote has a great example and links to some great resources.

Our second book is going to be How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. It will go nicely with our annual trip to the apple orchard and our Rosh Hashana activities. The lapbook activities I have found for it look like lots of fun. For once I am not struggling with the social studies activities.

I don't know what will come next sequentially but I am also planning lapbooks for Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and Cranberry Thanksgiving which will obviously be done later in the year when they are appropriate. I am also thinking with all the coloring and writing that will be involved in the lapbooks that we may very well take two weeks per book.