“Diver in Magic Kingdom”. Green Lake (Grüner See) is located Tragöss Austria. In spring snowmelt raises the lake level about 10 meters. This phenomenon, which lasts only a few weeks covering the hiking trails, meadows, trees. The result is magical to watch diving landscapes. Photo location: Grüner See at Tragöss, Austria. (Photo and caption by Marc Henauer/National Geographic Photo Contest)

The Arizona State Sun Devils cheer team performs during the second half of the NCAAF game at Sun Devil Stadium on September 01, 2022 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Red-crowned cranes, dancing gracefully in the snowy fields, spread their wings and perform a “courtship dance” at the feeding area of the ”Tsurui Ito Red-crowned Crane Sanctuary” in the village of Tsurui, in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on February 15, 2025. (Photo by JIJI Press/AFP 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)

Bianca Toniolo picks a daisy as the family take a walk through the woods 200 metres from their home in San Fiorano, March 19, 2020. This was the last time the family went to the woods as restrictions got stricter throughout the country to try and contain the spread of coronavirus. (Photo by Marzio Toniolo/Reuters)

A Palestinian boy dips in a natural spring to cool off during a heat wave, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on May 17, 2020. (Photo by Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

A woman carries earthen pots to fill them with drinking water on a hot summer day, on the outskirts of Ajmer, Rajasthan, India April 25, 2017. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/Reuters)

A man covered with thermal blanket walks along railway tracks beside an improvised refugee camp on the border line between Macedonia and Serbia near the northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, Thursday, March 10, 2016. Around 1.500 migrants and refugees are stranded at Tabanovce transit center for refugees in northern Macedonia. (Photo by Boris Grdanoski/AP Photo)