looking for pre-school for Ben

Today, Ben and I visited two pre-school centres in the area. The first centre is Learning Fresh owned by a young and soft-spoken mother, Ms Liew. Before leaving home, I made a phone call to make sure it was ok to visit the centre at that time. What impressed me was that, she not only writes good English but speaks good English too. This is the first criteria I am looking for if I were to put Ben in an English speaking environment. There was no Asian accent, not even American accent which I do not like, but I couldn't tell what accent that was. I don't think it is British accent either.
Anyway, we had a short chat about how the kids are being taught in the centre, the development stages, etc. Another thing which I think is good is that, there is only 1 toddler in the class of 3 years old at the moment. It means if Ben joins the class, there will be more conversation between him and the teacher. I agree that kids learn faster among the same age, but Ben also enjoys talking to older children and adults. And if that happens a lot, I believe he would gain a stronger and better language foundation. Some more, eventhough English is not completely new to him, but in term of speaking, it is something he has to learn from the very beginning.
They also emphasize a lot in reading which is also something I like about them, and for the 3 year-olds, they focus more on learning-through-playing and English speaking. Reading and writing come in only at the age of 4-5, which I think is a bit late. Well, not too late though as it depends on the kids' progress actually. They do not believe in flash cards learning which I personally like it a lot after seeing the result from Ben. When I started flash cards with Ben, he was 2+ years old. I am not a hardworking mother, so I taught him only once a day, the A-aeroplane, B-ball flash cards. After 1 months, he could memorize 90% of it. That's how he learnt the alphabets. Then seeing his interest in transport, I bought another set of cards on transport, taught him for 2 weeks+, and he could tell me each of the card I showed him. He could even memorise the order of the 40 cards! So I added some more for him, animals, birds, numbers, etc. And now I have taught him some English and Chinese words (altogether about 40 words), and out of my surprise, he likes them very much. He even likes to find the words he already knows from books, newspapers and magazines! Yeah, there are skills to use flash cards, but to me, it really works, and it stimulates the passion of a kid to learn more.
Then come the rate. I would say it is outside of my expectation.
The second centre was Tumble Tots. Ben's eyes were wide opened when he saw those physical play equipment in the centre and he couldn't wait to have a try. Those equipment were so colourful and attractive that Ben went straight to a trampoline and jumped!
Yeah, I would say it did not convince me at the very first place besides the physical play equipment. My first criteria is not met unfortunately. The explanation by the instructor was too brief and not very informative compared to the way Ms Liew has presented. I did not stay long and left for home.
The 3rd pre-school in my list is CECE by Tunku Abdul Rahman College. Many friends of mine sent their children to CECE and have good comments. Anyway, more comments will come only till I visited their centre.

little kids' words

Recently I noticed that when Ben's coming down the staircases, he purposely moved slowly. And when he says a prayer he pauses for a few times. When asked why, he explained, 'it's loading'. Although he's mistakenly taken the wrong meaning of 'loading', I find it funny to use that word in such way.