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Coming-of-age stories are often like mysteries where a set of "facts" are presented which the child slowly begins to realize is either a lie or an abuse of the truth. Unlike a mystery, the reader probably already knows this so it's more about the moments where the child has a glimmer of understanding or at least some recognition that there is another world that operates above their level. A child might be confronted with a reality, but have no context to process it. Unlike adults, they will absorb as eye-witnesses more than they react, comment, or criticize.
There is the old psychological stress reaction "fight or flight" which flatters adult male agency but ignores the third survival instinct: "freeze". Freeze is what children do most. It's how a mother (deer or lion) can drop her babies next to a bush and come back to them later. They are not as curious about the world. They aren't going to protest their circumstances. Most kids will just freeze and do nothing as a stress survival instinct.
They will all have individual personalities by this age. Some will fret, some will comfort others, some will be cynical, and some will escape to humor. They are not successfully applying these personalities yet, but they are popping up constantly in what they say and how they interpret what's going on, especially among the others close in age where they will be roll-playing as leaders and dramaqueens. Allow some of the kids to be self-important know-it-alls, some to be compassionate, some to be little jerks. They won't be very good at these personalities, inconsistent, and they won't be able to persuade the others, but these traits will still be leaping out at odd times.
Rather than viewing them as lost little ducklings, maybe try making a few stand out for humor and audacity, rebelliousness and pomposity too. The older kids will mostly be able to see through this, like using reverse psychology and other obvious "tricks" to get the younger ones to comply. Clearly you can't have 11 kids crying for 3 months, so their emerging personalities and friendships will evolve and mature through the adventure. One will still be bossy, but smarter about how they boss. One will still be a dramaqueen but less destructive. One know-it-all is proud of all the new things they can now be an expert about. Differentiate, and give them growth even if it's just an inch.
With so many kids, you might want to organize them into factions so the reader can keep them straight. 2 girls are inseparable and always agree, so they are effectively handled as 1 character in the reader's mind. Some are independent or skew towards the older kids, and some are just lost and need constant supervision. Readers will need some bold and recognizable traits to separate them, and they will probably need to be hammered a few times before you subvert them or allow the kids to grow past it.
Lastly, kids adapt. Fast. If they need a parental figure, they will pick one and latch on. They will forget they are upset, and they will quickly learn the "rules" to most circumstances even if they don't overtly test them. Let them have insight, but then let them be naive morons too. Most won't have a realistic understanding of danger or "forever", so circumstances won't be dire. They will complain about creature comforts at first, but even this will become boring because young kids aren't attached to an idealized past the way adults would be. Kids are always looking for next and new, without applying critical value to the experiences. Things are much more "right now" for the younger kids. The older ones will understand what they are missing, and wish they were somewhere else. The younger ones might appear to accept things more quickly because they don't really understand the scope and they don't have any expectation they could influence it anyway.
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