When Brussels resident Annelaure Leger dropped off her two children at school on Wednesday, she said the task felt like nearly every other day — save perhaps for the machine gun-toting policeman and camera crews capturing the moment.

After a four-day shutdown sparked by a threat alert across the Belgian capital, Leger was relieved that classes were back in session, even though she had to take her bike since the subway was still not running in her neighborhood.

“It was like Christmas come early for the children,” Leger said. “They stayed at home and played with the neighbors’ kids.” She said their family lives partly in Paris and that the children are very aware of what’s happening both there and in Belgium.

“It would be better if the police had caught the terrorists, but the children know they are trying to do that so that everyone is safe.”

Though the Belgian capital continues to be under the highest-level threat alert, meaning that an attack is serious and imminent, schools and subways began reopening across the city on Wednesday. That is restoring a sense of normality to the city, parts of which have been deserted since the alert was first raised to the top level in the capital on Saturday.