While the majority of the bloggers at HomeschoolBlogger.com are mothers, an increasing number of fathers are calling HomeschoolBlogger.com their blog home. Jay Ryan happens to be one of those dads. Why would a homeschooling dad want to blog at Home s chool - Blogger.com? Like most, Jay enjoys the sense of community and has found HomeschoolBlogger. com very user friendly. He has also found a blog to be the perfect place to write about his different interests and also share them with others.

By occupation, Jay is a patent agent for a law firm in the Cleveland area, but he also has a strong personal interest in astronomy. In 1990, he became involved in astronomy education. Jay produces an astronomy newsletter, The Classical Astronomy Update, for Christian homeschoolers. The Update currently has about 2,000 subscribers. To subscribe, go to tinyurl.com/a2xbf. Apparently, this isn’t enough to keep Jay, a father of four, busy. He is also hard at work on an astronomy curriculum for middle and high school children. He describes why he decided to take on this task:
“I eventually became convicted that I needed to abandon my aspirations for secular popular astronomy writing and devote my labors to the Kingdom of God. The curriculum will focus on ‘Classical Astronomy’ and therefore will be very different from everything else out there, secular or Christian.”

Jay is currently working on the illustrations for the curriculum. He hopes to have it completed by August, just before his wife gives birth to their fifth child. His interests don’t end with astronomy. He is also active in the local Boy Scouts. (See related article in this issue.) He has started a blog just on their troop at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/Troop777 and a general scout blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/ScoutBlog. He hopes to someday organize an umbrella organization for homeschool scouts. He is eagerly looking for more Christian families who have made the Boy Scouts part of their family life.

Jay and his wife, Debbie, have always homeschooled their children. They believe that homeschooling begins at birth. So it began the day they had their first son, David, 11 years ago. They have since added Richard, Samuel, and Veronica. The Ryan homeschool is an eclectic mix of classical education and family fun. Jay has made it a personal challenge to read the “Great Books” and original sources from many areas of knowledge. He hopes to transfer that love for great books to his children as well.

His blog FromCleveland combines all of these interests and anything else that catches his attention. Take a few minutes to stop by Jay’s blog and see things are moving along with his astronomy and his growing family. You’ll be educated and entertained at the same time.