Tourists play on the “Big” piano inside of the toy store FAO Schwarz on the last day that the store will be open in New York, July 15, 2015. FAO Schwarz will officially close the doors of its flagship Fifth Avenue toy store in New York City on Wednesday night, to the dismay of shoppers charmed by the iconic destination for childhood fun. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Bonita the border collie sticks out in the bluebells at Kingley Vale, Chichester in West Sussex, England in the last decade of April 2024. (Photo by Trevor Adams/Matrix Pictures)

Young gymnasts practice pull-up on a bar at a gymnasium of a sports school in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province April 11, 2015. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

Children react after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad near the Syrian Arab Red Crescent center in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus May 6, 2015. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

People eat sushi off the body of a model at an opening event of a bar in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, August 22, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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 picture shows the blood stained floor of a kindergarten following reported shelling in the rebel-held area of Harasta, on the northeastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on November 6, 2016. At least four children were killed and 19 people injured in the government strike in Harasta, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP Photo)

AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus laughs as she attends a swimming event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, August 21, 2004. Niedringhaus, a veteran Associated Press photographer who had covered wars around the world was shot dead and another reporter was wounded on April 4, 2014 when an Afghan policeman opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan, the news agency said. (Photo by Reuters/Staff)