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)

Tourists take pictures of straw figurines of traditional deities Shennong (R) and Zhang Wulang (L back) during China's National Day Holiday, in Xinhua county, Hunan province, October 4, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A Palestinian young woman from the Birzeit University looks on during clashes with Israeli security forces in Beit El, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on October 7, 2015. New violence rocked Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including a stabbing in annexed east Jerusalem, even as Israel and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas took steps to ease tensions. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP Photo)

Belgian yoga teacher Dorien Dierckx, 29 from Brussels enjoys a beer while relaxing in a jacuzzi full of hot water and a mixture of ingredients used to make beer, and where customers can serve their own beer from the tap at the Good Beer Spa in Brussels, Belgium on May 12, 2021. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

A three-year-old girl smokes a cigar during the Saint Simon celebrations in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala, on October 28, 2019. Thousands believe that the saint helps people find work, solves family problems and cures illnesses. (Photo by Orlando Estrada/AFP Photo)

School children wear face masks as they take part in an awareness rally against the use of tobacco on “World No Tobacco Day” in Kolkata on May 31, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Soldiers, including two recruits who have brought some chickens, at Victoria prepare to board the train for the battle front. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)