Alanis Morissette opens up about 'unschooling' her three kids

While other celeb parents are facing the real struggle that is homeschooling their kids in the middle of a pandemic, Canadian music icon Alanis Morissette is rolling with the routine. That’s because for her, it’s far from new. The musician has been embracing attachment parenting and “unschooling” since she first became a mother nine-and-a-half years ago. Now a parent of three (with partner Mario Treadway the couple are parents to Ever Imre, Onyx Solace, and baby Winter Mercy), Morissette is getting deep into something she calls “attunement”, a subject she recently discussed on the latest episode of Katie’s Crib, a Shondaland podcast from Katie Lowes."For me, attachment parenting is, on a very basic level, eye contact, skin-on-skin, responsivity, gentleness," said Morissette, who just dropped a new album — her ninth studio release. "The word 'attunement' is [important] in parenting but also in marriage and best friendship and professional relationships. ... If we're not attuned to each other and we're missing each other like ships passing, there's not a chance for that deep connection that will be the hotbed for their whole life," she explained.

 

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mornings. #exhaustedbliss ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

A post shared by Alanis Morissette (@alanis) on Sep 19, 2019 at 1:32pm PDT

"What I do with my kids is I watch their eyes," she said. "So if I'm invested in them looking at this candle that I'm holding but their eyes are looking over there at the dappling through the tree, I'm gonna put that candle down ... they [couldn't] care less about my little agenda."[video_embed id='1936918']RELATED: Alanis Morissette says she's 'unschooling' her kids[/video_embed]This student-lead kind of learning was inspired by a trip the singer once took to Fiji, where she saw two young boys exploring the beach alone, unaccompanied by adults or guardians while claiming that their ancestors and family were all around them. "I remember thinking that's the ideal. That any itch you have — like, 'Hey, I want to learn that technology' [or] 'I wanna be really funny right now' — you would know that there would be a village around you [where] every itch could get scratched on some level."At the same time, she realizes that unschooling isn’t accessible to everyone. "I can be working at home when I want to and they can come on tour with me, and we're an attachment village," she says of her family of five.Morissette, who grew up under the watchful eyes of two teacher parents in Ottawa, adds that she still respects the traditional school system and is open to her kids attending regular school if they decide it’s what they want to do. "When Ever says to me sometimes, 'Mom, what if I want to get my doctorate?' or whatever, I just say, 'Yeah, whenever you want to go to school, you're gonna go to school. And if you want to just keep learning outside of that context, then you will.'"[video_embed id='2032102']Before you go: Jussie Smollett opens up in a rare interview[/video_embed]