How the Harding family sent six kids to university by the age of 12 "We are not a family of geniuses" say Kip and Mona Lisa Harding (centre), who sent six of their ten children off to college by the age of 12. Picture: College by 12. IF you believe Kip and Mona Lisa Harding, the secret to cultivating a child's brain is to allow them to follow their passion and study what they love. The high school sweethearts from Alabama in America's deep south have 10 children. The six eldest all entered university before they were teenagers and their four siblings fully expect to do the same. Hannah, now 24, set the bar for the rest of the family when she sat her college exams at the age of 12. At 17, she became Auburn University Montgomery's youngest graduate, leaving with master's degrees in maths and mechanical engineering and designing spacecraft by the age of 22. Rosannah,18, followed her big sister into college and, after a five year stint at California College of the Arts is now employed as an architect.. Serennah graduated from Huntingdon College at the age of 17 with a degree in biology and will this month embark on a career as a physician. Heath, 17, entered the university system at the age of 11. By 15, he had become Huntingdon University's youngest graduate, with an English degree under his belt and is now doing a masters in computer science. Fourteen-year-old Keith is currently a senior at Alabama's Faulkner University, studying music. His little brother Seth, 12, is just down the hall, specialising in Medieval Studies. "I don't have any brilliant children," Ms Harding told MSNBC yesterday. I'm not brilliant. My husband's not brilliant. We're just average folks. So what's their secret? Ms Harding was studying to become a nurse before making the decision to home-school their growing brood full time. She taught them "the basics" but says they really took off academically when they were allowed to pursue the subjects they loved. "We find out what their passions are, what they really like to study, and we accelerate them gradually," she says. We didn't limit their experience. They're taking college classes, but socially, they are just teenagers. Mr Harding shares his wife's philosophy, stressing that " the expectation is that you're going to have a fun day, not that you're going to score A's. These are not itty-bitty adults. They play with kids their own age, but they don't wait until they're older to figure out what they love in life. And while one would imagine it would be much harder to grow 10 prodigies than one, the Harding children appear to have thrived from witnessing the success of each other. As their mother puts it: "By the time you get down to number five, number six, they just think learning seems normal." Keith and Seth's college mate, Wesley Jimmerson, 19, says," It makes you wonder: Are they advanced or are we just really behind?" Mona Lisa Harding has written an e-book about accelerated learning called College by 12