Well I will share from a different perspective. I do have our 3 older boys doing different science, but we have always done it together until this year. We STILL do nature walks together and experiments when we get to them are enjoyed by all 5 children.
Our 11YO son is just gaining confidence in reading and he REALLY, REALLY wanted to read his own science book as our 12 and 9YO sons have always done. We did read-aloud together but our 11YO (just learning English the last year) was bored and didn’t like the Apologia books. So … I found the Christian Liberty Press God’s Design Grade 2 book cheap at a consignment sale. It goes along nicely with Apologia and he LOVES being able to read it himself. I do have him read-aloud with me b/c it serves two purposes. i can check his reading skills and comprehension with oral narration after, and he gets to read to his younger siblings (all the older love this and so do the youngers).
Oldest DS is reading the Apologia Gen. Science book however I told him the experiments would be optional. We’ll do some of them but as I said before, we’ll do those as a family. Our middle son (9YO) is reading the Botany book this year. We have already done Zoology 1, 2 and 3 together the last couple of years. I plan to do Astronomy with both younger boys (11 and 9) as my 11YO will have that much more reading skills under his belt. It will also go nicely with the Apologia Physical Science book.
It really isn’t a lot b/c we don’t do a lot of the activities and when we do, we do them as a family. We don’t do the notebooking but do keep our nature journals and narrate. When we narrate/discuss, this is together as well. It works for us and fits their needs for this year.