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)

Jessica Gomes showcases designs by Jessica Gomes for Jets during the David Jones Spring Summer 18 Collections Launch at Fox Studios on August 8, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images for David Jones)

A man wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) cremates a body of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) victim at the crematory as the country recorded the highest daily increase in deaths since the pandemic began, in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 3, 2021. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball during her match against Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova during the Madrid Open tennis tournament, Sunday, May 5, 2019, in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Andrea Comas/AP Photo)

American media personality Paris Hilton and American television personality Nicole Richie at 20th Century Fox Television USA Television TV Classics in 2003. (Photo by Sam Jones/20th Century Fox TV/Kobal/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Shepherds walk with sheep through the village on their way home during autumn redyk in Gron, Tatra Mountains region of southern Poland, October 6, 2015. Redyk is a traditional, kilometres-long march of highlanders with flocks of sheep, which takes place twice a year: in the spring at the start of the grazing season, and in the autumn at season's end. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

A colourful sky before sunrise on Whitley Bay beach on December 21, 2015, as December could be the mildest across a large part of England since records began more than 350 years ago, forecasters have said. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

A displaced Pakistani girl collects recyclable goods from a garbage to earn living for her family in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, January 19, 2016. (Photo by B.K. Bangash/AP Photo)