in one of my villages i currently have only one child, a pretty little girl. however, whenever i drag her unto one particular collectible (the glassy pebble) she will pick it up and there will be a message saying she is collecting a new item. instead of taking it to the research hut, though, she apparently keeps it to herself: the pebble will simply disappear and she will go about her usual business again. This has happened three times already now but only in this one game with this one child. Has this happened to anyone else before?

EDIT:
right after i posted this she did it with a black pebble too. she must love these things, i'll make her a breeder at least there will be something to inherit from her!

Yes, there seems to be 2 areas that if a collectable is picked up they will get stuck and "drop" it. Both places are in the Ancient Place but I don't remember exactly where.

Also a few more keri, I lost my last beetle (I did get it back eventuall) due to the kid knocking repeatedly into the research hut. Or also dropping a few collecables on the fire.

thx for your help! she really turned out to be less interested i the things once they showed up elsewhere. still making her supermom, though, she's so pretty, hope she passes it on.

Ohon, more places to drop them? And you dropped the last collectable? That makes me want to cry just thinking about it!

But you know, a theif on the island actually sounds kind of an interesting twist!

Yeah keri, I did.

mine have this same problem

You can avoid some of the accidents in the "kids get stuck"-places. The sensitive areas surrounding the collectables are larger than the collectables themselves. So, if a collectable appears in a "get stuck"-place, drop the kid a bit above or on the side of the item. The kid will still be able to see it and pick it up without getting stuck and dropping the precious thing.