An Australian athlete does a handstand as she arrives with her teammates during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday July 23, 2014. (Photo by Frank Augstein/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)

“The RSPB’s Snettisham Nature Reserve lies on the edge of The Wash, one of the most important bird estuaries in the United Kingdom. The Wash, on England’s east coast, supports over 300,000 birds, and Snettisham sometimes holds more than a third of them”. – The Palm Beach Post. Photo: Waders flock together seeking new feeding grounds during the incoming tide. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images via The Palm Beach Post)

This April 9, 2016 photo provided by Bertrand Piccard via Global Newsroom shows Piccard taking a selfie on board Solar Impulse 2 during a test flight over the Pacific Ocean. The solar-powered airplane on an around-the-world journey had traveled 80 percent of the way from Hawaii to California by Saturday, April 23. The aircraft's destination on this leg of the journey is Mountain View, Calif., at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. (Photo by Bertrand Piccard/Global Newsroom via AP Photo)

A Border Collie competes in the Flyball during The World Dog Games at Acer Arena on October 31, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

“The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Games had been scheduled for Tokyo, and then Helsinki; the 1944 Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games, the city had previously been the venue in 1908”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The Olympic torch passes through Windsor on its way to Wembley, for the start of the Summer Olympics, 29th July 1948. (Photo by Ron Burton/Keystone/Getty Images)