A child performs in the mutton bustin (sheep riding) at the rodeo performance of the 76th annual Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on May 18, 2024. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A visitor stands on a snow-covered road while taking a selfie in the Angeles National Forest near La Canada Flintridge, Calif., Thursday, February 23, 2023. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Displaced Palestinian children play with surgical rubber gloves in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 31, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP Photo)

Palestinians living in the rubble of destroyed houses or in makeshift tents in the city of Khan Yunis, which suffered great destruction during the 15-month-long attacks of the Israeli army, continue their daily life despite all the negativities on February 16, 2025 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

People react as they ride an escalator on the London Underground during the “No Trousers Tube Ride” in London, Britain on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Reuters)

Wrestlers compete in the 63rd Historical Cali Oil Wrestling Tournament, held on June 29, 2025, in Bursa, Turkiye. The event, which featured over 800 wrestlers and served as the final rehearsal for the 664th Historical Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival, is on track to become a stage of the Oil Wrestling League, now in its third season. (Photo by Mustafa Yilmaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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)

Flames rage through a pile of tires at the tire dump of Sesena in Toledo, Spain, 13 May 2016. The tire dump reportedly contains over 100,000 tons of tires and reaches to the neighbouring town of Valdemoro in Madrid. According to local authorities, the fire was apparently deliberately started as it had been raining till midnight and the fire started early 13 May 2016 at a small spot in Valdemoro. (Photo by Ismael Herrero/EPA)