“Sunward”. When the Mediterrenean Mantis opened its wings, It seemed very impressive at the sunshine... Photo location: Nicosia, Cyprus. (Photo and caption by Hasan Baglar/National Geographic Photo Contest)

People fly kites during the 2017 Pyostroye Nebo kite festival in Tsaritsyno Park in Moscow, Russia on August 27, 2017. (Photo by Asya Dobrovolskaya/TASS)

Dancers take part in the World Salsa Festival at El Pueblo Coliseum in Cali, Colombia, 26 September 2025. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA)

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 Waura Indian woman watches the activities of this year's “quarup”, a ritual held over several days to honour in death a person of great importance to them, in Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, August 24, 2013. This year the Waura tribe is honouring their late cacique (chief) Atamai, who died in 2012 and helped created the Xingu Park, and his important contribution in facilitating communication between white Brazilians and Indians. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Afghan children play soccer in front of the war-damaged Darul Aman Palace in the suburbs of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011. (Photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Photo)

Supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide dance and drum as they wait near the airport for his expected arrival from Cuba, where he underwent medical treatment, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, July 16, 2021. Aristide's return adds a potentially volatile element to an already tense situation in a country facing a power vacuum following the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. (Photo by Fernando Llano/AP Photo)

In this picture taken on October 27, 2019 lightening strikes on a building during a thunderstorm in Bangkok. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)