"This year we are going to have a special family gathering," announced Mom Polygon. "Who is coming? I hope all the Polygons will be there. I miss my cousins," said Khosi. "I miss my side of the family the most, the Quadrilaterals," smiled Mom.

"Yes, it's a long time since we saw Rectangle, Square, and Rhombus," said Dad Polygon. "Don't forget, they have three children now!" Mom reminded Dad.

"What about cousin Scalene and her children? Are they coming?" asked Vusi. Mom answered, "Yes, they are Polygons, although they are not Quadrilaterals. Their surname is Triangle. The kids are Isosceles and Equilateral."

"Oh yes, the Triangle family!" exclaimed Vusi. "But they look a lot like the Quadrilaterals." "No, not exactly," said Mom. "Triangles have three sides, while the Quadrilaterals have four sides, like me."

Dad Polygon added, "I am excited because my three other cousins will be here, they are Pentagon, Hexagon and Octagon. They are also part of our Polygon family."

Vusi asked, "Dad, why are we called Polygons?"  "We are called polygons because we are 2-dimensional shapes. We are made of straight lines, and our shape is closed, as you can see, all our lines join up. Our cousins the Triangles, the Quadrilaterals, the Hexagons and the Pentagons will all be visiting," replied Dad.

"Did you say that Octagon is coming? Is she also our relative?" asked Khosi.

"Of course my daughter, by just looking at her you can see she belongs to our family. You need to look carefully at the number of sides your cousins have, otherwise you might not be able to see the difference. Cousin Octagon has eight sides because her name starts with Octa," said Dad.

"Okay, what about Pentagon and Hexagon?" asked Vusi.

"Cousin Hexagon has six sides because his name starts with Hexa," replied Dad.

"Pentagons have five sides. Our teacher told us that Penta means 'five'," added Khosi.

"And remember that Tri means three and Quad means four. That's what makes your Triangle and Quadrilateral cousins look different," said Mom.

"Dad, how many sides does Heptagon have?" asked Vusi. Dad laughed and said, "I am not going to tell you. Remember we took a photograph with them at your uncle's wedding. I want you to look at the photograph carefully and tell me what you observe."

Vusi looked at the photograph and quickly answered, "Heptagon has seven sides!"

Khosi added, "Yes, remember our teacher told us that Hepta means 'seven'."

"Oh my wife, can you see how clever our children are? Okay, what about Deca, what does it mean?" questioned Dad. "Ten! Ten!" shouted Vusi and Khosi together.

"Yes, that's why one of your cousins is called Decagon, but he is not coming because he has to represent the swimming team. There are so few Decagons at their school," Mom told them.

Then the children asked, "Mom and Dad, can we invite our friend Circle from next door?"

Their parents agreed that Circle was welcome to join the family gathering. Just then they heard a knock at the front door, and Dad got up to check. "The Quadrilaterals are here! Welcome! Welcome" called Dad.

The rest of the family jump up to greet Square, Rectangle and the three Rhombus children.

The Quadrilaterals are happy to arrive first.

The Triangle family knock on the door soon after the Quadrilaterals.

Scalene, Isosceles and Equilateral are tired after their long journey, but they are so pleased to be with the rest of the family.

Finally, Octagon and Heptagon arrive with their children, two Pentagons and Hexagon. They have also brought three Squares with them.

Octagon explained, "I hope you don't mind that three Quadrilateral children from the village have come with us. They have never visited the city before."

"Friends and family are always welcome here," smiled Mom. Then she sent all the children outside to play.

"What game are we going to play?" Vusi asked the other children.

Equilateral squealed, "Let's play the tessellation game!" All the Polygon children started to tessellate.

"Can I play with you? I also want to tessellate," said Circle. Vusi said, "Shame, I'm sorry you can't tessellate my friend."

One of the Squares added, "Can't you see your shape, you are not a Polygon. Circles can't tessellate."

Circle was sad and felt left out. It's not so much fun playing together when someone is left out.

Vusi said, "Hey guys, let's rather play a game that Circle can also play."

So the Polygons and Circle played happily together until the delicious food was ready.