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Welcome to the game! This is a great community here, so never worry about asking questions. I usually GM for my groups, so I'll tell you what I usually do:
1. I think you did the right thing here. Non-spellcasters wouldn't necessarily know if an item is magical, but they would probably know that they could have them checked out back in town. I'd say make sure the merchants play fair -- i.e. they recognize the item is magical and pay for it fairly. Don't want to throw the players for too many loops their first few sessions.
2. Yes, you can pour a healing potion down an ally's throat. It's a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity (if enemies are nearby). This is usually the best way to make up for having no magic users in the party, so continue to encourage them to carry lots of healing potions.
Crank's got it almost right (well, 100% right for the full game). There are no 'attacks of opportunity' in the beginner's box. They exist in the full game and are a system that allows creatures or players to get free attacks when someone's attention is diverted (moving away, drinking a potion, casting a spell, etc etc). It is an advanced rule and thus not in the beginner's box.
Otherwise it sounds like you did a good thing. I use a modified rule for healing where if you get magical healing while below 0 hit points, you go to 0 and then get the HP. For example, your player is at -14 HP and is given a potion of cure light wounds (CLW). It gives him 8 points of healing. I'd put him at positive 8 HP, not -6 HP.
You can also use the heal skill (I don't know if the beginner's box has it) to help someone heal. Spending a full day in bed with someone providing care (Heal check DC 15) gets you four times the healing rate (so 4 HP per level per day). If none of the party characters have the Heal skill, you can probably let them hire someone in town for, say, 1-3 gold a day. In fact, the full game has rules for hiring doctors and heal checks and trained laborers and so on and so forth... but that's more than you need, heh.
Welcome aboard! First as far as rules go, just keep in mind, it is a game, and should be fun. It is OK to fudge or bend a rule to keep the game moving along, especially if it helps everyone to have a good time.
My input on your questions: 1)if no one can use detect magic, you could just add a descriptor to the items so the players realize they are magic. For example have the magic items all have a (low value) gem worked into the item. It is perfectly fine to pay a wizard in town to identify items for the players. You could even get some good story and roleplay out of this once you are ready for it.
2) As you learn the rules, you will catch mistakes, just fix them and move on. You can even 'backtrack' a round or a whole fight if you really need to. As for the healing, to add to what was already mentioned, drop more healing potions into the treasure the players find.
I'm also curious, how did he get to -14 hp? Was it a critical hit?
You could also have magical weapons glow. I believe the full game specifies 30% of magical weapons give off an effect like the level 0 Light spell. Of course, that's unfortunate if it is the rogue's magic sneaky stabby knife, but it is kind of a solid give away that it is a magic weapon.
For groups without healers, give them someone in town that is willing to help for free (or a small donation to the church, or that requests them to go on small missions now and then). You can also give them some minor magic item you invent.
Like a potion bottle that automatically refills with 2-3 doses of Cure Light Wounds every day. It won't break the game by any means and will give the players a bit of breathing room.
I've also considered things like a bedroll that lets a player recover five times the normal HP (up to, say, 15) if you sleep in it, but only once every 24 hours.