You don’t have to pack a bag full of games and activities every time you leave the house anymore. If you’ve got a smartphone, you’ve got all you need to keep your child busy at the doctor’s office, at a restaurant, or at big brother’s soccer practice.

Here are 10 ways to tap into your smartphone’s amazing array of games and educational “app”ortunities and keep your child occupied…as long as the battery holds out!

• Game On —Play some age-appropriate games. Browse your app store for electronic versions of classic games like tic-tac-toe or wildly popular new games like Angry Birds. Tapping squares or moving slingshots can help build fine motor skills.

• Read Between the Lines –Download some new reading material. Many of the e-reader software programs now offer mobile phone versions that allow you to purchase books and read them from your phone screen. Build a library with new titles that will excite your independent readers or capture the attention of small children when you read to them.

• QWERTY –A notepad application will allow children to practice keyboarding skills. Call out words for them to spell. Or work on your grocery list out loud and let your child do the typing.

• U R Gr8t – Have your child send a text message. Pick the recipient carefully–maybe Daddy would appreciate knowing you’ve been in the waiting room for an hour and a half and it’s time to come up with a plan for dinner. This is also a good opportunity to explain to children that phone plans often come with a predetermined number of text messages  allowed and after that there are extra charges.

• Say Cheese — Have your child take photos of you or of the sibling that is swimming practice laps. You don’t have to keep these pictures, delete them when your youngster isn’t looking!

• My Tunes –Listen to some music. If you’re a Mom with a data intensive plan, go ahead and create a Pandora list with songs your child might enjoy.  Or download a music player application and keep her favorite songs on file.

• Who’s Calling? — Go ahead and allow him to work his way through your list of ringtones, then let him make a few changes to your audio notifications. If you can’t get used to his selections, you can always change the settings back later.

• Tag, You’re It –Install a mobile tag reader and flip through magazines in the waiting room, discovering what the codes reveal about some favorite products.

• Location, location, location. –Have fun with a map app. Figure out where you are and how far away you are from home. Talk about distances and the time it takes to travel those distances when you’re in a car, on a bicycle, or on foot.

• Can You Hear Me Now? –Actually, you both could use the phone to place a call! That’s often the last thing we do with phones these days, but this might be a good time to call Grandma and tell her all about what you’ve been doing and how you wish there had been smartphones when you were waiting with her back in the day!