I wanted the kids’ album to have a song about shapes, as well as one about category vocabulary in general, where the choice of words might further encourage their open-minded exploration of their “learning zone” (i.e., between comfort and danger). I worked in such personally favorite terms as “lemniscate,” “kimchi,” and “dingus.”

(The globe is derived from a Google Earth image.)

Lyrics

You know all about your foods

like cheese and eggs and onion rings

and bread and squash and apples.

Sprouts and fish and ginger snaps

and all those vittle staples.

But there’s a whole wide world of other foods.

So,

let’s all try grasshopper,

crispy crunchy grasshopper.

Grasshopper is food

for our hungry brood.

Then,

let’s all eat some dumplings,

yummy stuffing dumplings.

A dumpling is food

for our hungry brood.

Then,

let’s all get some kimchi,

napa cabbage kimchi.

Kimchi will be food,

for our hungry brood.

Now,

some folks won’t join us.

They just want certain foods.

So how about clothes instead?

You know all about your clothes

like shirts and shoes and underwear

and hats and jeans and hoodies.

Capes and gloves and overalls

and all those garment goodies.

But there’s a whole wide world of other clothes.

So,

let’s all try pajamas,

nice and soft pajamas.

Pajamas are clothes

for our fashion shows.

Then,

let’s all wear a loincloth,

comfy homespun loincloth.

A loincloth is clothes,

for our fashion shows.

Then,

let’s all get our earmuffs,

noise protection earmuffs.

Our earmuffs are clothes,

for our fashion shows.

Now,

some folks won’t join us.

They just want certain clothes.

So how about shapes instead?

You know all about your shapes

like squares and lines and triangles

and hearts and curves and letters.

Coils and cones and cylinders

and all those graphic figures.

But there’s a whole wide world of other shapes.

So,

let’s all try squircles,

rounded square squircles.

Our squircles are shapes

for our image scapes.

Then,

let’s all draw lemniscates,

lovely loopy lemniscates.

Lemniscates are shapes

for our image scapes.

Then,

let’s all get cardioids,

bouncy beany cardioids.

Cardioids are shapes

for our image scapes.

Now,

some folks won’t join us.

They just want certain shapes.

So how about things instead?

You know all about your things

like stuff and foods and emotions

and thoughts and shapes and gonads.

Clothes and parts and animals

and all those dingus doodads.

But there’s a whole wide world of other things.

So,

let’s all try nantoka,

Japanese nantoka.

Nantoka are things

for our gatherings.

Then,

let’s all have dingseboms,

Norwegian dingseboms.

Our dingseboms are things

for our gatherings.

Then,

let’s all get imkutsihq,

Yup’ik imkutsihq.

imkutsihq are things

for our gatherings.

Now everyone can join us.

We all like certain things.

So let’s put this song to bed.

You know all about your category words.

Foods

Clothes

Shapes

Plants

Emotions

Animals

Vehicles

and

Things!

Nobody has everything.

But everyone has some things.

And we can all try out each other’s things... now.