A Ballet Paraisópolis student wearing a face mask rehearses amidst the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on August 13, 2020 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Ballet Paraisópolis is a project that teaches dance to children and young people in the Paraisópolis community in order to encourage them to seek better life opportunities. Founded in 2012 by ballerina, teacher and choreographer, Monica Tarragó, Ballet Paraisópolis has a total of 200 students and another 2,000 on the waiting list. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)

The towers of Russky Bridge are seen over the fog covered Vladivostok, Russia on May 26, 2020. The so-called “fog season” on the Pacific coast and in the south of Russia's Primorye Territory lasts from April till September. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)

An attendee dances at the start of the “Big Goth Dance Party” during the Porcupine Freedom Festival, or PorcFest, the Free State Project's annual summer gathering in Lancaster, NH on Wednesday, June 25, 2014. (Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh/The Washington Post)

Combat between two male stag beetles, Italy, 2022. During the mating season, male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) go into a frenzy, with lively but harmless clashes, in which bigger males often have the advantage over smaller ones due to their impressive mandibles. Longer larval development and genetic traits can increase the size of some individuals, but all saproxylic beetles are threatened by poor forest management, logging and dead wood removal to “clean” the forest. (Photo by Iacopo Nerozzi)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus takes a selfie with fans after winning against Madison Keys of the United States during their women's singles match of the China Open tennis tournament, at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Wednesday, October 2, 2024. (Photo by Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo)

Participants take part in a Christmas day swim in the sea at Brighton beach, southern England on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)

A couple sits on a swing during stormy weather along a beach by the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City on December 8, 2021. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/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)