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)

The “EMIEW3” robot (R) demonstrates communicating with a visitor during a press preview in Tokyo on April 8, 2016. Japanese electronics giant Hitachi unveiled its humanoid customer service and guidance robot “EMIEW3” and “remote brain” robotics IT platform. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP Photo)

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun during military exercises near the village of Divychky in Kiev region, Ukraine, October 21, 2016. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

More than 1,200 vintage posters that would send any movie buff into orbit were discovered in an Ohio garage, including the only known copy of an almost 7-foot-tall creation for the 1947 reissue of “Dracula” that could sell for $40,000. The Dallas-based Heritage Auctions in Dallas puts them all on the block March 22 and 23, including some rare specimens from the silent movie era. (Photo by Courtesy Heritage Auctions)

A schoolgirl walks on an under-construction railway track at Navapura, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, November 29, 2019. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Bangladeshi children from Khan Tea garden posing for photos on March 23, 2022 with their faces painted after adorning with colors like Rainbows on the celebration of the annual Hindu festival of colors, known as Holi festival marking the onset of spring. (Photo by Md Rafayat Haque Khan/Eyepix Group/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Nobby the polar bear cools down as he plays in a lake at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster, England, Friday June 17, 2022. A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is giving much of western Europe its first heat wave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to top 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) from Malaga to London on Friday. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Wire via AP Photo)

Hopeful models together after their casting call for the 2008 for the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival at the Prahran Town Hall on January 23, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)