How Matthew McConaughey, Camila Alves Raise Kids Outside of Hollywood (Exclusive)

For Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves McConaughey, it’s all about keeping simple rituals while raising their three children at home in Texas.

“Whether that’s gathering for dinner and sitting down and sharing about our day at the end of the day, or cooking a meal together or taking trips together, we do a lot together,” Matthew, 55, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story of family time with Levi, 17, Vida, 15, and Livingston, 12. 

The McConaughey kids have also pitched in since they were little. Says Levi, who shares the PEOPLE Generations cover with his dad and grandmother Kay ahead of their new AppleTV+ film The Lost Bus: “We always had chores. We started off with an allowance. Then, as we got older, it was still chores, but the allowance slowly—”

“Turned into more, ‘This is how you pay your way,'” adds Matthew.

“Exactly,” nods Levi with a smile. “This is how you get Christmas presents…”

The family has continued to travel together when Matthew has a film shoot that keeps him away longer than a week. “That’s helped a lot,” the Interstellar star says. “So I’m not going to work on my own returning three months later and having to play catch-up with [Camila] or with the kids.”

He adds: “Camila drew that line in the sand before we even had kids. Is it getting more difficult now to continue to do that when [Levi] is on teams and Vida’s got dance and and social circles [and]…Livingston’s on a football team? Will that be harder now to pull them? Yeah, we’ll make that decision when it comes. But so far, so good.”

Matthew’s parenting style has evolved from his own childhood experience, which included some physical discipline.

“Growing up, there was a lot of ‘Because I said so,’” says Matthew. “Camila and I try to listen longer, more, try to understand. If I get to where I have to raise my voice, I feel I’m already going, ‘Let me backtrack and see, what did I miss on the way to letting it get to this point?'”

Kay, who now resides with Matthew and Camila, recalls asking the two, “‘Do you ever get in any kind of argument?’ And I don’t know which one said it, but it was more or less, ‘When we do, we don’t do it around the kids.'”

What has surprised Matthew about fatherhood in the teenage years? “It’s more DNA than I thought,” he says. “I thought it was 90% environment, 10% DNA, when it’s closer to the opposite. Kids are who they are.”

Levi, who next appears in Way of the Warrior Kid opposite Chris Pratt, says he’s enjoying exploring acting. “This role wasn’t me going ‘Oh, I’m going to become an actor,’ “ says Levi of The Lost Bus. “It was me saying, “I’m really interested in this.”

And as Matthew’s eldest steps into the spotlight, “I’ve tried to give him some tips that I’ve learned along the way, tried to give him some of those tips earlier than I understood them,” says the star, who shot to fame in his early 20s with 1993’s Dazed and Confused and 1996’s A Time To Kill. “It’s hard to keep your feet on the ground to sift out the real stuff from the BS.”

“But over time, you got to get that sixth sense,” Matthew continues. “It’s important that he has his own ownership of who he is and becomes. And [acting] will be a part of that if he continues to do it, part of finding his identity, but it can’t be his full identity.”

The Lost Bus streams on Apple TV+ on Oct. 3.

For more on the McConaughey family, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, or subscribe here.