I'm bored......

These are words I have never heard on a repeated basis from ANY of my children until now....

Sophia (who tuned 8 in June) seems to be going through an "I'm bored" phase. She is the first of my kids who have ever come to me and repeatedly told me that she is bored, there is nothing to do, etc...it doesn't matter what I offer as a suggestion or even if we get out and do something. At first I thought that was it, that since we haven't have any money or transportation that she was just sick of being home, but in the last week a friend has picked us up and we have gone to the zoo and a local "splash" park plus we went to movie night at the church and they go to Sunday School--which they LOVE--each week and she even went to the aquarium and out to dinner with my mother last week. But the second the activity is over I can see that look in her eyes and I know what words will soon follow.....

There is lots to do here--unrestricted screen time (both tv and computer--although the boys do dominate the computer!), crafts, brothers to play with, I have sewn with her, woods across the street that she seems to love to explore, a park they visit almost daily, a new puppy (don't get me started on that one), toys galore--plenty of girl things like dolls, barbies, bratz dolls, polly pockets, plus every boy and gender neutral toy you can think of, books to read...but she still flops on my bed at least a few times a day and exclaims "I am so bored"......

I don't know where she has even picked up the expression, maybe from some tv show, because it isn't a phrase that is uttered in our house. She seems to genuinely have this deep felt sense of boredom....I hope it is a passing thing, but still am unsure what to do.....