I will rate what my elder boy has gone through. He is in P5 now.
He started with berries at 4yo, at that time, everything was okay. He enjoyed it but didn’t learn much or speak much mandarin until P1. They rate him as normal Chinese (yes, they do rate) and did not give him a preferred time slot for enrichment (which is a blessing in disguise). The teacher that taught P1 enrichment was biased and rude. So we switched him to Tien Hsia. Apparently, there were quite a lot of kids switched from Berries to Tien Hsia. The parents commented that their kids were also rate for normal Chinese and not HCL. Therefore, the teachers/ berries did not give preferential time slot for normal Chinese. There goes berries for us.
He started Tien Hsia from mid of P1 to P4, I can say that his Chinese improved a lot. Surprisingly, he was given a choice to take up HCL in P5 (and berries says he couldn’t make it… duh…) but we did not take up HCL because we do not want him to get stress out with an additional subject. We went to Tien Hsia because their timing suits us not because we want him to get into HCL. At the same time, we enrol him into Hokkien Huay Kuan for Chinese creative writing as it was a whole lot closer to us that Tien Hsia. I would encourage anyone who has a Tien Hsia near their place to take up Tien Hsia.
Currently at P5, he is in SHHK for Chinese enrichment and creative writing as it makes more sense since he loves the environment and the teachers over there. To be clear, he likes the teachers in Tien Hsia as well.
Our younger boy was in Tien Hsia when he was 3 and 4yo, but now is in SHHK at 5yo. His Chinese is a lot better than his older brother during this age.
All I can say is, if your kids learn through play, berries might be a good fit. But both my kids are old school, so writing and thinking suits them better. Also, do not get stress out if anyone rate your kid normal, my elder boy proves otherwise. He can’t speak a sentence of mandarin or recognise Chinese words when he was 3-4 yo to being offered HCL entering P5.
Have fun with your kids as they’re growing up and don’t get stress or pressured to do what other people do. There is no one size fits all.