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)

A fisherwoman repairs the fishing nets at a fishing port during the annual summer fishing ban, which covers the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the waters north of 12 degrees north latitude in the South China Sea, on June 8, 2022 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Zhenqing/VCG via Getty Images)

Australian surfer Sally Fitzgibbons rides a wave during the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games at the El Tunco beach in El Salvador on June 6, 2023. (Photo by Marvin Recinos/AFP Photo)

A model showcases designs by Metias as part of the LMFF Offsite Runway 1 show on day six of the 2011 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival at Peninsula Central Pier Docklands on March 19, 2011 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images)

People take pictures of deer in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland December 5, 2016. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

British model Rhian Sugden in the second decade of November 2023 nearly spills out of bodysuit in her latest Instagram post. (Photo by @rhiansuggers/maycontaingirl.com)

A girl lights a candle during an Easter service in the Volodymyrsky Cathedral, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 4, 2024. (Photo by Alina Smutko/Reuters)

Livestock vendors displays their bulls to customers at a cattle market in Hyderabad, in Pakistan's Sindh province on May 20, 2025, ahead of the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. (Photo by Husnain Ali/AFP Photo)