In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A competitor participates in the Tough Mudder challenge near Henley-on-Thames in southern England May 2, 2015. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Reuters)

A woman rides a donkey during a donkey race in Roum village, Jizeen countryside, southern Lebanon, August 9, 2015. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

A participant has his body painted before a regional bodybuilding championship in Stavropol, southern Russia, April 10, 2016. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on August 20, 2022 a woman dances with a child alongside the Garonne river in Toulouse, southern France. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian woman is assisted at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 30, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Visitors stand inside a church made entirely of snow and ice in southern Bavaria on January 14, 2012 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

A full moon is seen behind buildings at night in Ashkelon, southern Israel on December 1, 2020. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)