Roosevelt's Time, Then and Now

What children learn in Level 30

• Around 1900, when Roosevelt was President, cars were new and rare. Most people traveled by horse and buggy, or by train for long trips.
• Roosevelt was the first President to ride in a car in public, in 1902!
• Telephones were new too, and most homes didn't have one. People wrote letters to family far away.
• Most homes had no electricity. People lit oil lamps, and kept food cold in an icebox, with a big block of ice inside.
• Clothes were scrubbed by hand on a washboard. Today, a washing machine does the scrubbing.
• Many kids wrote on small chalkboards called slates. Some walked to a one-room school, where kids of all ages learned together.
• Some things are the same! Kids went to school, played baseball and marbles, and hugged their teddy bears.
• Your turn! Sort them. Is it from long ago, or from today?
• Try it with a grown-up! Ask the oldest person you know: what was different when you were little?