Early-risers take part in an exercise program at dawn in Bug Light Park, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, in South Portland, Maine. Most of the state is enjoying a pleasant, dry stretch of weather that should last through Saturday. (Phoot by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

A gopher tortoise walks the grounds of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, near the Vehicle Assembly Building on January 18, 2024. An all-European crew including Turkey's first astronaut are poised to blast off to the International Space Station in a mission with Axiom Space, as countries hungry for a taste of space turn increasingly to the private sector. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

Liverpool soccer fans celebrate their team's victory against Tottenham Hotspur, clinching the Premier League title at Anfield in Liverpool, England, April 27, 2025. (Photo by Jon Super/AP Photo)

Members of kibbutz Nirim celebrate Shavuot, a Jewish holiday marking both the giving of the Torah and the wheat harvest, at the kibbutz near the border of the besieged Gaza Strip on June 1, 2025, for the first time since the October 2023 attacks by Palestinian militants. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

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)

Belarusian schoolchildren, who are members of a pro-government Young Pioneer movement, perform with drums as they take part in a meeting to mark the 95th anniversary of their organisation in Minsk, Belarus May 19, 2017. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A participant with a face painted as popular Mexican figure “Catrina” attends the Day of the Dead event at a National house for Mexican fans in central Moscow, a host city for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia June 29, 2018. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

A person waits for donations at the exit from the Fred Meyer parking lot on South 19th street in Tacoma, Friday, February 8, 2019. (Photo by Peter Haley/The News Tribune via AP Photo)