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)

American actress, dancer, and singer Ariana DeBose arrives at the 75th annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 12, 2022, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Photo)

Chad Rowley and his wife Susan race during the 22nd North American Wife Carrying Championship at Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine, on October 9, 2021. Couples compete on a 278-yard (254-meter) obstacle course for a prize of wife's weight in beer and five times her weight in money. Winners are invited to the world championship in Finland where the sport originated. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

A demonstrator gestures as she talks with a Lebanese army member during a protest as Lebanon marks the two-year anniversary of the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4, 2022. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

A woman wears a “MAGA King” jacket at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, U.S., August 6, 2022. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Cute giant pandas enjoy life in China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda in Wenchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, 8 February, 2023. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A supporter of former US President Donald Trump waits outside of Trump's President Day event at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on February 20, 2023. (Photo by Giorgio Viera/AFP Photo)

People dressed as mermaids and mermen take part in the group swim during the MerMagic Convention at the Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center in Manassas, Virginia on March 4, 2023. The event bills itself as the “World's Largest Mermaid Convention”. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)