Models perform during a Muslim fashion show an airport train in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday, May 2, 2019. The fashion show was held to great to upcoming fasting month of Ramadan, the holiest month in Muslim calendar. (Photo by Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo)

Ukrainian servicemen prepare 122mm artillery cannon before firing towards Russian positions in Kherson region, Ukraine, Sunday October 27, 2024. (Photo by Marko Ivkov/AP Photo)

A runner in fancy dress attempts a record in the TCS London Marathon on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Photo by John Sibley/Action Images via Reuters)

Firework display from the top of the Sky Tower to welcome the New Year on January 1, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

Dhruva Aliman does a back somersault as he dismounts from a slackline on the beach at Santa Monica, California on October 19, 2014. Slackline is a balance sport where a line of webbing is adjusted at different levels of tension between two anchor points and participants (called slackers) perform tricks and stunts including somersaults. (Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP Photo)

A monkey is led by its trainer Qi Defang during training for a circus in Suzhou, Anhui province, November 29, 2014. Suzhou is known as the hometown of circus troupes in China and has more than 300 circus troupes. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

Women take a selfie next to a police officer as they take part in New Year's Eve celebrations in the Bund, in Shanghai, China December 31, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

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)