Hi mannyw
It is hard chosing which way to go isn't it? It really depends on what you plan on doing in the future. We plan on leaving HK and for my daughter to start her 'A' levels in the UK and hopefully Uni too (yes, we've been thinking way ahead).
If you plan on sending your daughter to ESF Primary, I strongly recommend you send her to the ESF Kindie otherwise it will be very hard to get into P1. We applied to ESF Shatin and explained that both sets of parents were raised in the UK and English was the first language at home and we didn't even get an interview due to our chinese surname. We were just put on a waiting list. However, all parents I knew that sent their children to ESF kindie managed to get into ESF P1.
My daughter was also accepted into a local girls school on HK island, but when I heard the amount of homework and tests they received every week, I kind of shuddered. I admit that many children learn to be very disciplined in their studies from attending the local system but my daughter would definately have suffered if I couldn't help her with her work.
When my daughter was about 16 month old, I spoke both cantonese and english with her and she managed both lanuages very well. However, my son who is now 2yrs, hardly speaks at all, so I'm thinking that maybe he is getting confused and that I should just stick to one language. Every child is different and you just have to go with the flow and decide what language works for your daughter. Also baring in mind, as they get older, English will be a lot easier for her to learn than cantonese.
My daughter is fluent in both cantonese and english with english being her first language. I mainly speak in english whilst my hubby and her grandparents speaks cantonese to her. The school has quite an intentive mandarin program, so her mandarin is also coming along quite well.
Hope I have helped and not made you more confused but like you, I am still learning all the time. It doesn't matter what age the child, there is so much to learn!
Take care
Wow, just realised I've been going on a bit, sorry if it's a bit long..LOL