About the homework thing, that does vary by school. Quite a bit, in fact. I'm over in the corner where we're saying "They're in Elementary school. Let them go play and read books." People are nuts (don't even get me started on over-scheduling and parental pressure).
On the religion/traditions bit, I have far less expertise, but it seems to me that having traditions is important, but having ones that you (as spiritual role-model) can believe in is key (I think a lot of my own relationship to the religion I grew up with stems in a big way from my parents' relationships to it, particularly my father's). The community is nice, and can be very important, but I think that there are other ways of getting a lot of those same benefits through other avenues. As far as what his own religion, I don't think it's until about 7th or 8th grade that most (I reiterate, most) kids can really do much to create their own beliefs, and just tweak those of their parents and other role-models, but I don't really know how I think that impacts the conversation: I do feel like it does, though.
no subject
On the religion/traditions bit, I have far less expertise, but it seems to me that having traditions is important, but having ones that you (as spiritual role-model) can believe in is key (I think a lot of my own relationship to the religion I grew up with stems in a big way from my parents' relationships to it, particularly my father's). The community is nice, and can be very important, but I think that there are other ways of getting a lot of those same benefits through other avenues. As far as what his own religion, I don't think it's until about 7th or 8th grade that most (I reiterate, most) kids can really do much to create their own beliefs, and just tweak those of their parents and other role-models, but I don't really know how I think that impacts the conversation: I do feel like it does, though.