Performers walk past a light installation “Butterfly Effect” designed by Japan artist Masamichi Shimada, at the Battersea Power Station in London, Thursday, January 25, 2024. The Light Festival involved seven light installations from British and international artists at Battersea Power Station, which illuminated the winter evenings between Jan. 25 and Feb, 25. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

Hundreds of flamingos take flight in the Rift Valley in East Africa early September 2024. The birds gather in the region’s saline lakes to eat the blue-green algae that grows in abundance. The red-orange pigment in the algae is what gives them their distinctive pink plumage. They also use the site to breed. (Photo by Alexandre and Chloe Bes/Naturagency/Solent News)

An athlete takes part in a warm-up around the track of the National Stadium in Tokyo on September 12, 2025, ahead of the World Athletics Championships. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

(L-R) Singers Kelly Rowland, Beyonce and Michelle Williams perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on February 3, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov in action against Hans Niemann of the U.S. during the Diving Chess Competition in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 4, 2025. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

People walk through Ginza’s shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, 15 December 2025. Japan’s economic focus is on the upcoming Bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting where the central bank is expected to raise its policy rate to combat inflation. The BOJ signaled a rate hike bar is cleared with the wage momentum still intact. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA)

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)

An Indian boy dressed as Hindu god Shiva to attract alms from devotees chats with tourists as they sit on benches partially submerged in flood waters on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India, Thursday, July 30, 2015. The Ganges, one of India's largest rivers is flooded following monsoon rains. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)