TELEVISION: FAMILY
HIGHLIGHT: THE JUNGLE ROOM
CATHERINE DAWSON MARCH
September 7, 2007
The Globe & Mail

Watching this new series may remind you of Bill Cosby's chats with precocious children in Kids Say the Darndest Things - except in this show the humour of a child's disarming truthfulness is delightfully free of a comedian's arch mugging. The Jungle Room is like being a fly on the wall of a daycare centre, but not your average daycare centre. This one only has seven kids aged 4 to 6 and they are doted on by an engaging, ever-so-patient teacher named Anthony. Filmed at Palmerston Community Day Care (but with only a few select children), the preschool reality series is 11 fun minutes of watching kids be kids - from the lippy pouts, to the consequences of not tidying up, to the messy, delirious joy of foot painting. It's entrancing for young viewers - I'd call it the play-nice preschool version of MTV's Real World - but parents are going to love it too.�

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