This article describes and evaluates the use of infant observation to study children's transitions to infant school in Switzerland. Vignettes from observations are cited in order to illustrate the nature of the observations, and excerpts from the students' notes are examined to analyse the interpretations she made. We discuss these two sets of findings to show some of the pitfalls of using infant observation when the researcher has not been trained in it, and there is no weekly seminar to support the emergence of insight into the experience of the children observed.