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Our Consultants
We are looking forward to helping your family meet your individual testing and educational needs. Below, each of our WJIII testing consultants shares a bit of their heart and experience with you. You can click on your consultant's name to learn more about who you will be working with. Sherry Hemingway M.Ed. Director Serena Manning Sherry Hemingway M.Ed. Early Childhood and Elementary Education Life is full of wonderful surprises. Some surprises come through adventurous friends. Susan Miller is such a friend. We met shortly after our family moved to North Carolina in 1990. Together we had fun teaching, dreaming, and raising our young families. During the spring of 1994 Susan Miller, the founder of Lighthouse Educational Services, asked me to join her in her fledgling business of providing achievement testing to local home school families. I have always enjoyed working with children. Previously I had earned my Masters Degree at the University of South Carolina, taught within several public school systems in South Carolina, tutored, and led youth and children's activities at church. Once settling in the Raleigh area we were blessed to live in a neighborhood with a wonderful home school pioneer. Her family's living testimony and my work with Lighthouse Educational Services provided a new window through which I saw first-hand the excellence and dedication of many local home school families. Little known to me at the time, but this was the beginning of several grand adventures. Shortly after I began testing with LES, our family knew that God was leading us to home school. We are now celebrating our fifteenth year. On this end of the journey I can proclaim with a broad smile that yes the results are worth so much more than any momentary sacrifices. Our oldest children have thanked us. They have seen the difference that a solid education and knowing how to own your education makes in college. Our oldest is active in the Army reserves and is presently a graduate student and Teaching Assistant at Mississippi State University. Our middle child is enjoying the beautiful High Country and is an honor student at Appalachian State University. Our youngest is in the trenches in her senior year and will be attending UNC Charlotte in the fall. I share all of this just to encourage you. Yes, you can wear the many hats of a home school Mom with grace and excellence. Faith, grace, love, vision, and the support of the home school community will help you stay the course during the best and worst times. In 2007 I beame director of LES. For you "old timers - like me", Susan earned her PhD and is now the director of Miller Counseling in Raleigh. Lighthouse has grown from that first year of providing achievement testing locally to working with families and schools throughout several states, testing international exchange students, offering Orton-Gillingham and Barton based tutoring, teaching seminars at home school book fairs, and now offering the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Over the years it has been my pleasure to be a part of many home school families' lives providing achievement testing, tutoring, and together celebrating our families' important milestones. Achievement testing can be more than just meeting the state's requirements. Anything that you deem is worthy of your time and money should provide more benefits than just a piece of paper. Your family's needs are unique. I am looking forward to sharing the home school journey with you. Lighthouse Educational Services is here to encourage, guide, and provide you with the best in educational testing. Donna Annis B.A. English Certified Orton-Gillingam and Linda-Mood Bell tutor My name is Donna Annis and I have been a homeschooling mom for over twenty years. I have a B.A. in English and am an Orton-Gillingham instructor. I have been blessed with six children. Our two youngest children are currently enrolled in our school. Our youngest child was adopted from China. We have been afforded the opportunity to impact and direct the lives of our children and the many others that God has sent to our home each in the unique way that best meets their needs. Our family has found that although homeschooling has its difficulties and challenges, the rewards are far greater. One main challenge and belssing that I encountered on this journey was the reality that we had a child with a serious learning difference. As I sought God's help, He led me on a path not often traveled. I became a Orton-Gillingham reading tutor and well versed in many learning challenges. Through this I have been able to help our child and the children of many other families. My heart is for children who have struggles. We must trust Him and He will show us the way. Ginny Raynor Brown B.S. Psychology and Art If you had told me twenty years ago, before my first child was born, "You will quit your job and home school your children from first grade through high school," I would have laughed and then asked, "What is home school?" Truth be told, while on maternity leave, I heard Elisabeth Elliot on a radio show talking with her daughter, Valerie Shepard about home schooling her eight (!) children. I was so intruged by this option to home school that I attended th next conference in Winston-Salem which was amazing and life changing for me and my husband as we decided to home school our one, two, three daughters. Now, twenty years later my oldest is in her sophomore year at East Carolina University; my middle daughter is a senior in the midst of highschool transcripts and college applications; and my youngest is in eight grade gearing up for the unknown, home without sisters. Life has so many wists and turns and unplanned joys. Sometimes people ask me what I "do" for a living. Editions of my alumni magazine come out with lists of the gratuates that are "Who's Who" in this or that. I have been tempted to submit the following about who and where I am: Ginny Raynor Brown (WFU '83) is a "Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations" and has been engaged in a twenty year study in the psychology of child development through adulthood with the education of her gifted and talented students. This study is an ongoing work in progress. We are all a work in progres. Through Lighthouse Educational Services I have the opportunity to work with children and their parents by administering tests that show a parent waht their child has "achieved" in his/her learning thus far. As with my own, I want each child to feel comfortable with me when we work together. Having home schooled my own, I want to help the parents, too, by giving any advice or help in any area they need. In my opinion, the WJIII is the most personal and thorough achievement tests used with private school students and I have enjoyed administering it. Lisa Durham B.S. Special Education Certified Barton Tutor During this same time I was married and my husband and I, after prayerful consideration, determined that home schooling was the direction we too would take when children came along. And we did--we home educated our three kids over a span of fifteen years. During that time we were involved in homeschool groups, 4-H clubs, and a number of co-ops in the high school years. Since I had done annual testing as a teacher, I generally organized our homeschool group testing; helped parents interpret the results' and suggested curricula for areas taht needed remediation. So I was excited when Sherry asked me to join her team at Lighthouse Educational Services. Now that I have completely graduated from homeschooling (my youngest is a junior at a Christian High school this year), I am also once again working with children who have learning disabilities, as a tutor. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity that God gave our family to homeschool and I am prayerful that I will continue working with the home school community for years.
Serena Manning M.Ed. Special Education Certified Barton Tutor As a former special education teacher, I have had experience working with students of all ages and ability levels. The blessing of administering the Woodcock-Johnson III Achievement test is taht I ahve been able to work with families as well as children. I remain in awe of the diligence and patience these families demonstrate. Every home school family needs encouragement and I feel blessed to be a part of each child's educational progress. I see every encounter as a unique ministry opportunity. Some of these opportunities include tutoring students of all ages in various subject areas, helping home school families plan and structure their children's school year, and providing teacher support and remedial guidance at Southside Christian School in Clayton. When I consider our many years of homeschooling, I know that I am blessed beyond measure. These have been challenging, fruitful years in which my children have grown in maturity and wisdom - and so have I. With the Bible as our foundation and academics as our framework, my husband and I have used our homeschooling experiences to shape our children's character. Homeschooling has also provided me with opportunities to work with other students in co-op classes, tutoring sessions, and at WJIII testing appointments. And I never would have been able to make it this far without my wonderful friends with whome I have laughed, cried, rejoiced, prayed, and planned. Indeed, my homeschooling journey has been a blessing.
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