Local residents receive food from federal authorities in Xalacahuantla, Mexico, on Thursday, October 16, 2025. Hundreds of communities in central and eastern Mexico were cut off by deadly landslides and flooding caused by torrential rains. (Photo by Alfredo Estrella/AFP Photo)

Actress Marney McQueen attends the 2025 ARIA Awards at Hordern Pavilion at Hordern Pavilion on November 19, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Hanna Lassen/Getty Images)

Youths play football in a flooded field following rain in Jantho, Aceh province on November 24, 2025. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

UConn students from Storrs, Conn., Gary Tu, Danny Wang and Victor Zheng, fish at Shenipsit Lake in Tolland, Conn. during sunset on Tuesday, August 19, 2014. (Photo by Jim Michaud/AP Photo/Journal Inquirer)

A girl and boy carry a basket of fish in Kyaukpyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar October 6, 2015. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A camel herder removes the rope from the mouth of a camel at the Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan, India, November 22, 2015. Thousands of animals, mainly camels, are brought to the annual fair to be traded. (Photo by Jitendra Prakash/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)

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)