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)

Youths pose for a photo, while doing their homework in an area once home to chop houses, where gangs dismembered enemies, but is now a “humanitarian space” in Buenaventura, Colombia, Wednesday, August 16, 2023. (Photo by Fernando Vergara/AP Photo)

Dinosaur expert Jason Hyde, 5, gets to know Bruno the T Rex on August 29, 2024. As the summer holidays draw to a close, parents and children enjoy Dinosaur-themed fun in Darlington town centre, UK, including a T-Rex walk and dino trail. (Photo by James Glossop/ The Times & Sunday Times)

A boy looks back while he and another boy play on a Syrian military tank, destroyed during fighting with the Rebels, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Sunday, September 2, 2012. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

This photo taken on March 10, 2025 shows the former disaster prevention office building in Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture, lit up on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. (Photo by JIJI Press/AFP Photo)

Movement is the essence and meaning of our life. We feel so much more alive when we are in motion, while people who spend hours motionless tend to have trouble connecting with the outside world. Whether you dive from a high cliff, play your favorite sport, dance at a rave party, or simply walk down a path with autumn leaves rustling under your feet with the love of your life by your side, all those things make your life richer, more beautiful, and more fulfilling. This set of pictures beautifully captures the joy of never-ending motion that enriches our life. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Children playing on Walled City rooftop in Hong Kong, 1989. The lack of formal governance in the Walled City led to challenges, but it also fostered a unique system of informal social order. (Photo by Greg Girard/The Guardian)

Warriors from the Suri tribe in Ethiopia still stage the savage “Donga” battles – even after many fighters have been died from their injuries. Donga stick fights take place after the harvests, the Surmas count days owing to knots on a long stem of grass or jags on the trunk of a tree dedicated to that specific use. Here: A tribeswoman sporting a huge lip plate and wearing a skinned animal carcass on her head. (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Exclusivepix Media)