hmmm. I don't think I ever asked her why she liked to collect small things, I just knew they were important to her. I did buy her a huge bag of plastic beads at the craft store and lots of marbles over time. She liked to dump and sort these items into tupperware containers and coffee cans. Honestly, I feel like I always had so many other things to worry about with her, I never really worried about collecting small stuff. Now that she is older collecting is still definitely part of who she is but not to the point of being obsessive or worrisome. And what she collects is different; last year it was books.
