Elise de Jong of Team Netherlands competes in the Women's Pole Vault during day two of the European Athletics U20 Championships 2025 on August 08, 2025 in Tampere, Finland. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images for European Athletics)

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)

Tribal artists and supporters from the southern Indian state of Karnataka dance outside the residence of Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi during her birthday celebrations in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, December 9, 2015. The Italian-born Gandhi is the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and has led the Congress party since 1998. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

Jessica Gomes showcases designs by Jessica Gomes for Jets during the David Jones Spring Summer 18 Collections Launch at Fox Studios on August 8, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images for David Jones)

A man wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) cremates a body of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) victim at the crematory as the country recorded the highest daily increase in deaths since the pandemic began, in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 3, 2021. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Commuters hang off a local passenger train in the morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka September 8, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A pair of young visitors rushes through a tunnel of colored lights at the annual Garden of Lights display at Brookside Gardens on December, 06, 2015 in Silver Spring, MD. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

A girl and boy carry a basket of fish in Kyaukpyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar October 6, 2015. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)