This month, in anticipation of summer vacations, we’re doing a few travel-related posts. You can see our full archive of travel posts here. And here are some of our basic tips for camping with young kids.

If you haven’t been following the blog regularly, let’s just throw it out there that we love to go camping. And we’re hoping to instill that same love in our two little guys (ages 5 & 3).

We’ve documented quite a few family trips on the blog. You can see a hike from our most recent spring trip here. Last summer we took a little road trip to Great Sand Dunes and the San Juan Mountains. And one of our most memorable camping trips was the winter weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park.

While the kids were babies, we packed almost no gear for them. As long as we remembered the carriers for hikes, what else did we need?

Now that they’re getting older, we’ve started to add a bit of kid-specific gear to our trips. We still like to keep things simple because we believe that the joy of camping is to truly get away from the comforts of home and enjoy the great outdoors. But we have found a few “essentials” that we wanted to share with you.

• headlamp – this is not the exact one that we have, but this one is a good price, AND it comes with a red light option. Our kids love using their headlamps, but they aren’t great about keeping it out of our eyes. That’s why the red light is key. Train them to keep it in red light mode when around the campsite, and you’ll save your eyes. You’re welcome.

• kid-sized camp chair – this is a new addition to our gear, but it’s already a winner! The kids had started to use our adult-sized chairs, but they were often tipping them and falling out of them. These chairs are the perfect size for them, and they’re currently getting a lot of use on the back deck.

• sleeping bag (fun) – we do mostly van camping, so the weight and chill factor of the kids’ sleeping bags aren’t breaking points for us. As such, our boys have these super cute bug bags. Caterpillar and ladybug.

• sleeping bag (serious) – we’ve had conversations about doing a few backpacking trips. When we get to that stage, this looks like a great bag for the boys. It’s a 30 degree bag that expands by an additional 12 inches at the feet as the kids grow.

• peanut butter packs – If your kids love nut butters, these packs are a great grab-and-go alternative to more sugary bars or other snacks.

• backpack – This is a well-loved pack in our house. It’s a small size but has plenty of room for whatever your little hiker needs. Plenty of pockets, in the right places, an emergency whistle, and a compartment for a hydration bladder.

• 4 oz enamel mug (not pictured) – this was the first bit of camping gear that we got for each of our kiddos. There’s nothing like your own mug for warm hot chocolate at the campsite.