A man prepares tea at a roadside shop on a flooded street in Kolkata, India, August 11, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

People watch as leaflets dropped by the Israeli military, urging evacuation south to al-Mawasi, land in Gaza City on September 9, 2025. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it will act with “greater force” in Gaza City and warned residents to flee, in a statement posted on X. Israel has been intensifying its bombardment of the city in preparation for an operation to take control of it, despite repeated entreaties from Western nations and aid agencies to stop. (Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP Photo)

A street performer jumps in the air inside Central Park as the colors of autumn become more prevalent in New York, October 29, 2015. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

People look at smoke and flame rising from the Nevskaya Manufaktura textile factory founded by English merchant J. Thornton in 1841, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, April 12, 2021. The emergencies ministry said the fire had broken out over several floors of the red-brick Nevskaya Manufaktura building on the Oktyabrskaya Embankment of the Neva River. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A Muslim woman wearing a Hijab kicks the water in the Mediterranean Sea as a woman wearing a bikini stands nearby at the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel August 30, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A murales showing a Swiss guard kissing a colleague, by street artist Laika, is seen on the day of the annual Pride march, in Rome, Saturday, June 26, 2021. This year's march comes amid widespread concern in Europe about legislation in Hungary that will ban showing content about LGBT issues to children and a controversial Vatican communication to Italy, criticizing a law that would extend additional protections from discrimination to the LGBT community. (Photo by Gregorio Borgia/AP 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)

Officers of the Senegalese Armed Forces get themselves ready to take part in celebrations for Senegal's 63rd Independence Day in Dakar on April 04, 2023. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)