[cloa513]

My bilingual son is 5 and has been going to a Japanese kindergarten has a basic 1 hour per week English program. My son is an outgoing child who misbehaves and takes the whole lunch period to do lunch. We want to choose between two preschools- preschools are bit like childcare with full days independent of the time of year. Both schools do my son's grade all in English. For all schools (and English lessons), my son says he wants to go there everyday. Both teachers for my son are native English speakers with young children. Neither school has a playground, students might walk to a local park a couple of times a week. My son doesn't use the inground playground at lunch time rather he does craft - (Honolulu (H)) H is one station away. H is cheaper with no entrance or annual fees. H has only one English teacher with 16 students in the combined 5/6 year old class. My son slightly likes the teacher better. It is very free form with the kids just talking with the teacher and worksheets. In the trial lesson, there was one other student who talked a lot but she is graduating so my son will most likely be the top communicative student. H has a elementary program with the same teacher as the primary with all grades at once. There is Japanese assistant and principal as well- the entire school's staff. The room is a little stinky attached to a solitary toilet. H has classes only 4 days a week. H has a 2 hour Saturday program with one other child (at the moment) who didn't speak much. H is 10 minutes away by bicycle. (Sea (S) )S is two stations away. It has teachers for each grade. S has a five day program. S is very structured and children have to raise their hands to speak. My wife had a negative experience with a Saturday program teacher who a bit physical (only seen on a monitor) with my son - the teacher is only Saturdays. S has a good elementary school program whereby you can go 3pm-7pm five days a week with separate teachers for different levels- you do have to have graduated from the school to use it. S is 25 minutes away by bicycle. My wife (with my son) would have to use the train to get to S when it is raining or after my son goes to a public elementary school. S has a modernish building and refurbished third floor.

Honolulu's English level reached 6th grade elementary on the worksheets e.g. what is the main point of this paragraph, is this a noun, so the teacher had been extensively teaching English but the children didn't speak much at breaks. Sea rather teaches singing and dancing and craft in English rather than teaching English directly so much and their children talk a lot in English in break time. S's structure is they have a time for activities and classroom control. H apparently talks in class if children misbehave (like non-violent misbehave).


Which school would you choose?