Models pose backstage prior to the Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 25, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

An activist with a painted face symbolizing the count of days spent in captivity attends the Free Azov rally in support of the captured defenders of Mariupol on April 21, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The participants came out to remind about the Ukrainian soldiers who have been held in Russian captivity for more than two years. (Photo by Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Silver Medalists Thomas Daley and Noah Williams of Team Great Britain celebrate as they pose following the Diving medal ceremony after the Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Aspland/The Times)

A man set wood on fire to prepare for worshippers to walk barefoot over burning coals during the Nine Emperor Gods festival at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Monday, October 7, 2024. (Photo by Vincent Thian/AP Photo)

Denmark's midfielder #06 Morten Frendrup lies behind teammates during the UEFA Nations League quarter final second leg football match between Portugal and Denmark at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

Raquel Poti poses for photographers during the “Amigos da Onça” street party on the second day of Carnival on February 10, 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

People wade through a flooded street after Typhoon Fung-wong hit Dagupan City, Pangasinan, Philippines, on November 10, 2025. (Photo by Noel Celisn/Reuters)

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)