I'm an expat in Italy whose kids have been out of school for weeks. This is how we're handling the lockdown and terrifying uncertainty of what's ahead.

• Michelle Schoenung is a freelance writer and translator who has been living in Italy for two decades.
• She lives in the heart of Lombardy, the region in Italy that first declared a 'red zone' due to the coronavirus outbreak.
• Her kids haven't been to school since late February- and on March 9, the prime minister of Italy imposed a national quarantine that restricts people to their homes except for necessity, work, and health reasons.
• Schoenung does not expect her kids to go back to school until early to mid-April. Until then, they're working on assignments online and doing projects while she juggles her own work deadlines - and her uncertainty at what's to come.
• She writes that Post-it notes have begun appearing all over Milan with the words "Tutto andrÀ bene" ("It will all be OK"), which helps give her a sense of hope.
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On February 22, 2020, I sent my two sons, ages 8 and 12, off to school. It was a seemingly mundane Friday that would end up being our last taste of normality for a while.

I live just north of Milan in a leafy suburb with my family. I came to Italy in 2000 for "an adventure," and I am still here two decades later working as a freelance writer and translator. That Friday, as I washed cereal bowls, I turned on the news to catch the morning's headlines before sitting down to my computer. There were somber reports of a confirmed case of coronavirus in a town about an hour south of me. By mid-morning, the number of cases seemed to be multiplying by the minute. I started to feel uneasy. I'd heard that the coronavirus was "just a flu," but both of my kids have asthma, so anything with a potentially harmful respiratory component is a cause for concern.

Unlike other European countries, Italy took action quickly, showing uncharacteristic efficiency in testing for the virus around the clock. By Sunday, it was clear that the outbreak was quickly spreading throughout the entire region of Lombardy. The decision was made on Sunday to close the schools throughout the region for one week.