The Past Simple to describe a habit which stopped in the past? Of course, it's better to use in this case "used to do" or "would do", but the question interests to me in theoretical aspect. There is no doubt about the correctness of the sentence "I played tennis when I was a child." But trying to convert quite literally the text from Present into Past Simple I have found myself dangling in hesitation and disbelief. So, the Present says: "James is a student. He gets up early every morning and has breakfast with his family. Then he leaves for school. James catches the bus to school because his school is far from his home. After school, he returns home and does his homework. In the evening, he usually watches TV or reads a book." "James was a student. He got up early every morning and had breakfast with his family. Then he left for school. James caught the bus to school because his school was far from his home. After school, he returned home and did his homework. In the evening, he usually watched TV or read a book." Sounds weird in places, isn't it?